According to a Los Angeles judge last week, California’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard will not be suspended. It is reported that Activision requested a suspension of litigation in order to investigate the violation of ethics reported by the company’s lawyers. The judge did not give specific reasons for rejecting Activision’s request.
In recent months, Activision Blizzard has been investigated by various groups in the United States for sexual harassment and discrimination against its female employees. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against the company in July, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a complaint in September, after which Activision reached a settlement with the latter for $18 million.
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While DFEH opposed the settlement, the agency said the settlement would harm its lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, because, under California law, the game company was exempted from certain claims and may allow it to destroy the evidence needed in the DFEH case. In response, EEOC revealed that the lawyer who investigated Activision Blizzard for DFEH had actually investigated the same company for EEOC before and used EEOC investigation information in DFEH investigations, which would violate California’s rules of professional conduct.
This is what led Activision to request a suspension of the DFEH lawsuit. According to Law360, Los Angeles judge Timothy Patrick Dillon rejected the request within a week but did not elaborate on the reasons. Subsequently, DFEH criticized Activision’s motion as baseless. Due to the same allegations, Activision Blizzard was also investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and received a complaint from the Communications Workers Association of America (CWA). Since the beginning of the lawsuit, at least 20 employees have left Blizzard, including the company’s former president, chief legal officer and multiple game designers.