- The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard earlier this year over claims for workplace discrimination, sexual misconduct
- Reportedly, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation over workplace discrimination and sexual harassment
- Within the investigation, Activision reportedly was asked to provide files dating back to 2019
The Securities and Exchange Commission initiated an investigation against Activision Blizzard over sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination. The investigation comes after earlier this year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the company for the same misconduct.
DFEH's Lawsuit against Activision Blizzard
Earlier this summer, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) launched a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over claims for workplace abuse, discrimination and harassment. The lawsuit claims that Activision employees conducted an activity known as “cube crawl”. The action involved male employees drinking alcohol while at work and abusing female employees. Allegedly, those male employees would visit a workstation after workstation harassing each of the female employees.
SEC Files a Lawsuit against the Gaming Giant
Now, according to theWall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation as well. The company that is famous for creating Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft is being investigated on how it handled reports by employees for sexual harassment, as well as workplace discrimination.
According to the Wall Street Journal, former and current employees have been subpoenaed as a part of the current SEC investigation. The SEC asked Activision Blizzard to provide documents dating back to 2019. Those documents would include employee files, transcripts of meetings, as well as separation agreements with former employees.
Besides the investigation, a class-action lawsuit was initiated against the gaming giant. The lawsuit alleges that Activision Blizzard did not inform its investors on how severe the DFEH's lawsuit against the company is. This may have resulted in misleading information for future investors. Yesterday, the class-action lawsuit met its deadline.
