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California DFEH expands scope of lawsuit against Activision Blizzard

The California Department of Fair Employment & Housing has chosen to expand its ongoing lawsuit against video game publisher Activision Blizzard to include accusations of interfering with the investigation.

Chris Jarrard

August 24, 2021 4:25 PM

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Just over a month after filing a lawsuit against video game publisher Activision Blizzard over discrimination and harassment charges, the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH) has now expanded the scope of its original suit, thanks to details uncovered in a new filing from Monday.

As a show of respect to Activision Blizzard employees, we would like to take a moment to repost their demands that they made public prior to their walkout. Furthermore, we would like to encourage our readers to donate to the following charities: Black Girls CODE, FUTURES, Girls Who Code, RAINN, Women in Animation, and Women in Games International.

The #ActiBlizzWalkout organizers are encouraging people to signal boost the hashtag as a sign of solidarity while using a 💙 emoji. They also support donations to the following charities:

@BlackGirlsCode
@WithoutViolence
@GirlsWhoCode
@RAINN
@wia_animation @GETWIGI pic.twitter.com/FtsbGARUsd

— Shacknews (@shacknews) July 28, 2021

News of the expanded suit filing was first published by Axios and outlines some new accusations, including news that Activision Blizzard has been actively impeding the investigation through NDA’s and involvement from law firm WilmerHale. The new filing also amends portions of the original suit to include contract and temporary workers, in addition to the regular employees of the publisher.

The filing also notes that Activision Blizzard insistence on employees speaking with the company and their legal representation ahead of any contact with the DFEH, which the state of California claims "directly interferes" with DFEH's ability to "investigate, prosecute, and remedy workplace discrimination and harassment violations on behalf of employees and contingent or temporary workers." The new filing also alleges that "documents related to investigations and complaints were shredded by human resource personnel."  

Just over a month has passed since the state filed its initial suit against the publisher and in the weeks since Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick offered a decidedly tone-deaf response to the original allegations.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.