California governor has been interfering in Activision Blizzard lawsuit
The state of California’s case against Activision Blizzard just took another blow. A report in Bloomberg alleges that the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom sought to “interfere” in the lawsuit between the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing and Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination. When the suit’s head counsel Janette Wipper tried to maintain the department’s autonomy, she was allegedly fired, which prompted assistant chief counsel for the DFEH Melanie Proctor to resign in protest.
According to the Bloomberg report, Proctor sent an email to staff saying, “The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation. As we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”
Activision Blizzard recently settled with the EEOC to the tune of an $18 million victim compensation fund. The DFEH sought to block that settlement, claiming it could allow Activision Blizzard the ability to destroy evidence or release the company from the state’s claims. After an attempt to stay the settlement, a California judge ultimately denied the DFEH’s requests, paving the way for the settlement’s approval at the end of March.
The $18 million settlement was criticized for being a drop in the bucket for the billion-dollar company. Riot Games, a similar billion-dollar video game publisher, recently settled its own harassment lawsuit for $100 million. High-profile lawyer Lisa Bloom, who has filed her own case against the company, held a press conference back in December saying, “Given that there are hundreds of victims, I think we can all agree that the $18 million number is
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