Activision Blizzard tries to prevent the lawsuit from being dismissed
Activision Blizzard’s request to suspend its ongoing litigation has been denied.
After the ongoing struggle between the Ministry of Employment and Housing (the State Department is currently suing Activision Blizzard for discrimination and sexual harassment) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, developers and publishers tried to shelve the lawsuit. EEOC also filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, which was settled for US$18 million on the same day it went public (thanks, Law 360).
DFEH opposed the settlement, saying it would cause “irreparable harm” to its lawsuit. EEOC immediately fought back, revealing that the two lawyers in charge of the DFEH case had previously cooperated with EEOC to conduct their own investigations on Activision Blizzard-the same investigation that led to the settlement.
This is a considerable moral violation and conflict of interest, and Activision Blizzard can use this to completely dismiss the case. It tried to take advantage of this small issue, believing that it would take time to investigate the allegations of EEOC. But it seems that Los Angeles County Judge Timothy Patrick Dillon knew nothing about it and rejected the request to keep the lawsuit. No reason for rejection was given.
Rejection may not prevent Activision from using the entire mess in its defenses. Although it cannot give itself any chance of breathing, it can still use this collapse to fight DFEH as a way to weaken the lawsuit. It has been a long and difficult months since the initiation of the lawsuit, and it seems unlikely that there will be results soon-even though the lawyers have put forward their opinions in our timetable for the lawsuit.