{"id":24600,"date":"2022-10-16T14:12:39","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T18:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/?p=24600"},"modified":"2022-10-16T14:12:39","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T18:12:39","slug":"activision-blizzard-subject-to-yet-another-sexual-harassment-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/activision-blizzard-subject-to-yet-another-sexual-harassment-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Activision Blizzard subject to yet another sexual harassment lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe Los Angeles Superior Court has filed a new sexual harassment lawsuit against Overwatch<\/a> 2 developer Activision Blizzard. The recent case is in addition to the ongoing lawsuit the game developer is embroiled in against the state of California.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff, who goes by \u201cJane Doe,\u201d filed the lawsuit against the company as well as former Activision Blizzard employee Miguel Vega. In the suit, the anonymous plaintiff claimed that \u201cActivision Blizzard is a massive video game company with a massive sexual harassment problem.”<\/p>\n

Doe also accused the game developer of sexual battery, gender discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and an inability to prevent harassment in the workplace.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit shed light on the root cause of the issue, going back years to when the plaintiff first met Vega online. According to her, they both started a short virtual friendship where she sent some \u201ccompromising pictures\u201d to him, which she regrets now.<\/p>\n

Doe further revealed that Vega helped her secure a full-time job at Activation Blizzard years after the incident and was her manager at the company. The plaintiff alleged that while working under him, Vega constantly threatened to release the photos she sent him years back to the public.<\/p>\n

Besides that, Doe claimed that the Activision Blizzard manager sexually harassed her, groped her, and tried to kiss her on several occasions. She added that he insulted her during her time with the company and promised that \u201cone day you\u2019ll give in.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving constant harassment and blackmail threats, Doe reportedly took the cast to the higher-ups, and Vega was released from his position with Activision Blizzard a month later. Doe\u2019s reason for the lawsuit is apparently because the game developer did not take immediate and corrective action for the situation.<\/p>\n

Due to Activision-Blizzard\u2019s failure to act quickly, she claimed that the company was ratifying the former manager\u2019s behavior towards her during his time with them. The lawsuit alleged that Vega \u201cnever missed an opportunity to make her feel small.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, the lawsuit is seeking punitive damages, compensation, as well as the ousting of the Chief Executive Officer of Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick. The CEO was previously accused of allegedly failing to report sexual harassment claims that were reported to him or that he knew about during his time with the game developer.<\/p>\n

Shortly after news of the Doe lawsuit circulated, Activision Blizzard put out a statement concerning the situation where they revealed that they took every complaint by an employee seriously and had immediately launched an investigation after Doe filed the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take all employee concerns seriously,\u201d the game developer wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the plaintiff reported her concerns, we immediately opened an investigation, and Mr. Vega was terminated within 10 days. We have no tolerance for this kind of misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the Jane Doe lawsuit, Activision Blizzard is currently dealing with a similar case by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in California, now known as California’s Civil Rights Division.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed in July and alleged that the company had traces of a \u201cfrat boy culture.\u201d It also claimed that there were several cases of discrimination against female employees. The company, however, strongly denied all allegations the DFEH lawsuit put forward.<\/p>\n

When the lawsuit was filed, Activision Blizzard attempted to have it dismissed. However, the presiding judge ruled against it and allowed the case to proceed. The DFEH lawsuit will officially begin trial in 2023.<\/p>\n

The game developer had a similar lawsuit previously filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was eventually settled out of court for $18 million.<\/p>\n

The numerous lawsuits come at a time when the organization is trying to close a deal with Microsoft. The former president of Activision Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, and Claire Hart, the Chief Legal Officer, notably left the Overwatch 2 game developer last year after a wave of litigation.<\/p>\n

\u2028More esports news<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Superior Court has filed a new sexual harassment lawsuit against Overwatch 2 developer Activision Blizzard. The recent case is in addition to the ongoing lawsuit the game developer is embroiled in against the state of California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[736,4,1000],"class_list":["post-24600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-activision","tag-featured","tag-overwatch-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24601,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24600\/revisions\/24601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}