The complaint, which was filed in the US district court for the district of Columbia, accuses
and the independently-owned teams in its esports leagues of implementing a “competitive balance tax” designed to penalise teams if player compensation exceeded a threshold set by the game maker.In response to the today’s news, Activision Blizzard has provided VGC with the following 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.
“Today’s lawsuit makes clear that the Antitrust Division remains committed to protecting workers across all types of industries from anticompetitive conduct.”Blizzard’s games were reportedly pulled from China after Activision felt NetEase ‘threatened’ Bobby KotickThe antitrust division has also filed a proposed consent decree related to its concerns.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
Blizzard: 'We've changed!' *More controversies happen* Blizzard: 'We're sorry!' You're only sorry because you got caught, enough with this, melt away for good in a sandstorm and go cry drinking mommy's milkies.
TaZeTheGod Yea, that makes sense... Its called a monopoly when you have control of production and use of it. Esports on their own are fine, and even the company that made it having one. But you cant limit other orgs to keep player wages down, for profit, govt will come at you for that...
Fun fact: ActiBlizz got sued for sexual harassment YET AGAIN as recently as six months ago, October 2021.
Meh this shouldn't change anyone's relationship with Sony or Microsoft. Both are guilty of something. But keep dreaming about console war is real mean while people are dying in real war.
I think somebody got their dates wrong....unless you're from the future you SURELY mean 1st APIRL 2023, right?
Match made in heaven with Xbox
Can somebody please shut this whole company down and get the creative and honest people into proper companies... if those even exist anymore.
“The company has gotten into more controversy we need to announce another character”
Fuckin hell Sony ponies just can't help but punch the air any time this company is even mentioned
shadwofchaos725 akamikeb not sure if you saw this or how new the info is
ProteusXL all Jim's fault huh?😂
YES!!! SUCK MICROSOFT DRY.
LMAO
That’s why they’re so desperate for that Xbox money 😅
FUUUUC JJJKKKKK
So the justice department is going after e-sports but not the merger lmao
This is so transparent it's not even funny
Can anyone provide me a solid method to streaming video games? No pun against anyone. I am a WoW Guide. I do dungeons with lower levels. Although I don’t get paid now; it would be cool to make $ along the way with positive demeanor. Thank you for reading.
Blizzard technique to release content just after a fuck up to hide it never cease to amaze me
This is what our justice department concerns themselves with?
Haha!
Reckagge literally just talked about Activision
MunstaMasta ah
Did you report that the already settled too?
Not surprising coming from a company that threatened to kill employees, had rampant sexual harassment/assault allegations and general mistreatment of employees. I wonder why such a profitable company would be willing to sell? Couldn’t be the top executives looking for a way out.
The irony is unbelievable here ☠️
A $68.7B sexual harrassment and antitrust embezzlement lawsuit. What a shit show of a company.
None of you read the article and it shows.
lulumeservey being Lulu I see.
Can you believe this meme is older than some people who browse here, yet it's more relevant today than it ever has been
“The Justice Department has reportedly agreed to a settlement with Activision Blizzard” well it’s already over. Need them clicks though to get to that part
Still not sued for their role in harassing an employee until she committed suicide?
They are the ones to pay the players and not the owners of the team?
What? Corporations suck? I had no idea.
I’m having second thoughts on the “Microsoft will make sweeping changes to actiblizz” cuz even if the buyout will succeed (practically secured at this point) Kotick will retain his throne as 大魔王 and he’ll practically drag Microsoft through the dirt
Yikes
But but Sony is evil comapny, we are the good guys, Sony wants to protect us dominance and reduce competition🤡🤡🤡
With how Activision tried to cover up this story with Overwatch you'd think Elon Musk found a new job.
Oh I know where this going
Decades without any action, but as soon as Microsoft wanna buy them now they the Italian Mob huh Gov?
MICROSOFT, HURRY UP AND FINISH THAT DAMN DEAL!!!
welp....more charges to this corrupt publisher
UniDaSensei Launch the space program
Meanwhile riotgames blocked smaller named teams for purchasing OWL slots
Huh
That xbox stench already seeping in
Someone had better pick up that phone, because I fucking called it.
Lol
I say they pull their games from it and dismiss everyone involved on their behalf and go back to making good old games again.
MS: Haha, we are close to acquiring ActiBlizz, we shall rule the games industry! DOJ: Here's an antitrust subpoena. Have fun!
Good thing they are being purchased cause Bobby doing everything in his power to keep them on the downhill lol
Fukk what
👀
Oh but don’t worry, Microsoft, of all people, is going to magically fix it all and make it all better! Just look at Halo 👍🏼
Can't wait to see how PS gets blamed for this
Jim Ryan's fault
Me at Activision:
It'll be fixed and more like Halo esports format in wages after Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard
Quick, announce a new hero!
Is it yet again time to blame Blizzard for a bad idea
Don’t worry Microsoft will save everything!!!
Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick: “Sony wants to protect its market dominance” Meanwhile Activision: limiting competition in the esports scene
wow !
VGC not going hard at sony for the bad pc port of last of us. Here they are printing anything negative they can get their hands on about activision just to try and hurt the deal. THE DEAL IS GOING THRU.
Yawn another nothing burger from the administration that loves to sink American companies
Justice for the players
As long as kotick is running things shit like this won't stop Microsoft can't take over sooner so some real shakedowns and changes can happen
Good. Frack Activision/Blizzard
Wow Microsoft wants to buy a burning ship....and people think it will improve? Yeah no...
Always something with these 🤡s
n3rdy_overwatch oh boy why am i not surprised to see blizzard pull another valve corp again
Oof
Exp0hero
oh activision can't stop being trash
Dear Lord.
I was wondering when, if ever, this was gonna happen. I've been hearing about it for years now.
This company man....
Activision and blizzard like Bonnie and Clyde except they suck and they keep getting caught like every other month lol
WHAT HAPPENS AT THIS COMPANY
Oh boy
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