While they are trying to have regulators approving to be allowed to be bought by Microsoft, I guess it is business as usual until that happens and the US Department of Justice has enough on the alleged behavior of Activision Blizzard.
And no, this is not yet another lawsuit from regulators questioning the questionable workforce culture of Activision Blizzard, but their dominance on Call Of Duty and OVerwatch eSport leagues.
This morning, The Department Of Justice has sued Activision Blizzard, accusing the gaming conglomerate of limiting competition for players in its Overwatch and Call of Duty professional esports leagues and suppressed player wages.
“Video games and esports are among the most popular and fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world today, and professional esports players—like all workers—deserve the benefits of competition for their services. Activision’s conduct prevented that from happening.”
“Today’s lawsuit makes clear that the Antitrust Division remains committed to protecting workers across all types of industries from anticompetitive conduct.”
-Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s antitrust division
This latest legal front of Activision Blizzard will be held on US district court of Columbia and Activision Blizzard has yet to respond the allegation on this lawsuit, but it will be interesting who player or eSport team/org could be a witness on behalf the DOJ and vice-versa talking in favor of Activision Blizzard.
UPDATE
Activision Blizzard responded to some outlets publicy with this statement:
“Activision Blizzard Esports is committed to being a leader in the esports industry and creating opportunities for players to earn fair pay and benefits. When we launched The Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues, we wanted to create viable career opportunities for the players requiring minimum salaries and mandatory benefits as part of player contracts. As a league, we also wanted our products to be competitive, so we carefully designed and implemented the Competitive Balance Tax.
“We have always believed, and still believe, that the Competitive Balance Tax was lawful, and it did not have an adverse impact on player salaries. The tax was never levied, and the leagues voluntarily dropped it from our rules in 2021. We remain committed to a player ecosystem with fair pay and healthcare and continue to have the least restrictive player mobility compensation system across all of the major sports leagues.”
