Activision Blizzard accuses the California DFEH of unfairly damaging the company’s reputation through its allegations of harassment.
In July of last year it was revealed that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH was filing a lawsuit against the game publisher. Activision blizzard over alleged sexual harassment and “brotherhood” culture found to be rife within the company. Since the allegations first came to light, there have been many developments in the case against the publishers of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, with new lawsuits and calls for CEO Bobby Kotick to resign.
Recently, Activision Blizzard has tried to dismiss the case. He has asked a state court to dismiss the lawsuit against him because Activision Blizzard believes the DFEH did not adequately investigate his claims before filing the lawsuit. Additionally, the DFEH is accused of failing to negotiate a resolution or mediate with the company before taking legal action against Activision Blizzard. Basically, this means that Activision Blizzard believes that the DFEH has violated its own rules by failing to follow due process.
Activision Blizzard also wants the case against it dismissed due to the “unfair harm” it has caused to the company’s representation. While this is quite subjective, it is possible to see the damage done to Activision Blizzard through another lawsuit filed by the company’s investors, who believe it could have warned them of the impending impact on their stock value. However, this lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was dismissed by a California judge.
In April, Activision Blizzard requested that the DFEH case against it be stopped due to a conflict with the latter and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC. The EEOC’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was settled fairly quickly, as it came to an end in September, resulting in an $18 million settlement and promises to repair the damage caused by the discrimination. The DFEH was unhappy with the fast-paced nature of the EEOC’s lawsuit, believing it could hurt its own case against the publisher. While the EEOC and DFEH settled, Activision Blizzard wanted the case stopped, but it was denied despite an alleged conflict of interest.
In order to have the case request dismissed, Activision Blizzard has also referred to the EEOC case as the publisher believes the DFEH has lightly stepped on the EEOC’s toes. The DFEH previously agreed to focus on gender discrimination claims related to pay and promotions, while the EEOC would take on harassment allegations. However, Activision Blizzard believes that the DFEH case seeks to include everything that the former accuses. So far, there has been no response from the DFEH, however, the agency has stated that it would make a statement in its court documents.