Activision Blizzard has to pay $35 million. This is a consequence of the numerous scandals of recent years.
There have been many allegations and scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard in recent years. The big sexism scandal hovered over everything, which spoke of discrimination and misconduct in the workplace and as a result led to major restructuring and layoffs. Related to this was an investigation by the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) that wanted to find out whether Activision Blizzard was communicating potential problems to investors.
An agreement has now been reached that a fine of 35,000,000 dollars (around 32 million euros) will be paid.
What were the allegations? The SEC conducted an investigation and concluded that Blizzard had broken several laws and rules.
The SEC notes that Activision Blizzard [in der Vergangenheit] failed to put in place the necessary controls to investigate employee grievances about workplace misconduct, resulting in no way of knowing if there were major issues to report to investors. (…)
Additionally, preventing former employees from speaking directly to the SEC about potential security breaches isn’t just bad corporate governance—it’s illegal.
What does Activision Blizzard say about this? A spokesman for Activision told the Wall Street Journal that they were apparently satisfied with the decision:
As the order recognizes, we have improved our disclosure process regarding jobs and the wording of our separation contracts. We’ve done this as part of our ongoing efforts to achieve operational excellence and transparency.
It’s important to note that the SEC did not determine whether abuse, discrimination, or other wrongdoing actually took place in the workplace — that is not part of this investigation. It was simply a matter of the lack of methods for collecting reports of misconduct and passing them on to investors. This is necessary because it gives investors a better understanding and better understanding of whether the company’s current management is performing as expected.
This payment is therefore an effect of the scandals of recent years and not a new incident.