Activision Blizzard is facing yet another sexual harassment lawsuit, this one brought by a former employee who claims her manager at the company engaged in “sexist and harassing conduct” toward her for years after she was hired, threatened her job if she refused to consent to sex, and even threatened to release a “compromising photo” she had shared with him years earlier — and that Activision Blizzard management was aware of the situation but did nothing to address it.

The anonymous plaintiff met and formed an “online friendship” with defendant Miguel Vega in 2009 or 2010—before she began working at Activision Blizzard—during which time “she regrettably sent compromising photos of herself.” That friendship ended in 2011, when plaintiff met her future husband, but in 2016 Vega helped her land a job as an independent contractor with the company, which was upgraded to a full-time position in 2020.

the legal action (opens in new tab) (through the Vice (opens in new tab)) alleges that Vega groped Plaintiff’s breasts “a dozen times” and that he often attempted to kiss her at work, telling her that “one day it will happen” or “one day you will give up” each time she rejected him. At the same time, he regularly “belittled and insulted” the plant during meetings, describing her as “an asshole” whose “opinions don’t matter” and that she was failing to perform “a job that a monkey could do.”

“Whenever Ms. Doe expressed to him that his comments were deeply offensive, he would simply dismiss her as being too sensitive and tell her that ‘this is how you work in a corporate job, a real job,’” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2017, Plaintiff filed a complaint through another manager, but Activision Blizzard failed to take any action to stop Vega’s behavior. His abusive behavior continued until he was finally fired in August 2021. Some particularly egregious examples cited in the lawsuit:

• At an Activision Blizzard office party in 2017, Mr. Vega took Ms. Doe to an empty part of the office away from the party and asked her if she would give him oral sex if he “did everything here.”
• When Ms. Doe expressed to Mr. Vega on several occasions that she felt underpaid, Mr. Vega would often respond with a trade-off: “Well, you know what you need to do,” while pointing to his groin.
• Mr. Vega detailed his threesome with his girlfriend and a former employee, and then told Ms. Doe, “You’re welcome to join us next time.” Ms. Doe rejected his sexual advance.
• Mr. Vega told Ms. Doe that he “is a very sexual person” and therefore “needs to masturbate at least twice a day.”
• After Mr. Vega and Ms. Doe entered a meeting room, he immediately closed the door and said “now take off your shirt” and giggled. Ms. Doe rejected his sexual advance.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that Vega insinuated to the plaintiff that he had friends in high places and would find a way to fire her if she reported him to HR. He also “many times” threatened to expose photos she shared with him shortly after they met, most recently in August 2021 when he said, “Maybe I will blackmail you with these photos that I have to make you leave your husband so you can come be with me.” Repeated requests for Vega to delete the photos were rebuffed, according to the lawsuit.

The situation came to light on August 23, 2021, when Plaintiff filed another complaint against Vega, through a different manager. This time, action was taken: Vega was fired a week later, on September 1, 2021.

Activision Blizzard defended the timeliness of its response in a statement sent to The Daily Mail (opens in new tab). “We take all employee concerns seriously,” a company representative said. “When the complainant reported her concerns to HR, we immediately opened an investigation and Mr. Vega was terminated within 10 days. We do not tolerate this type of misconduct.”

The lawsuit, however, accuses Activision Blizzard of failing to take “timely and appropriate remedial action” against Vega, presumably because the plaintiff’s initial complaint against him, which resulted in no action, was filed in 2017. It alleges multiple causes of action against the company and Vega, jointly and individually, including sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, gender discrimination, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The plaintiff is being represented by Lisa Bloom, the attorney who has asked for a compensation fund for Activision Blizzard victims “in excess of $100 million.” (opens in new tab)” in December 2021. Bloom said on Twitter that she now represents eight women who have filed sexual harassment complaints against Activision Blizzard.

This lawsuit is the latest in a series of allegations (opens in new tab) brought against Activision Blizzard related to workplace misconduct that began in July 2021, when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination and sexual harassment against women in the workplace. In June 2022, an internal investigation found no evidence of widespread misconduct (opens in new tab) at the company, but earlier this month the National Labor Relations Board found that the company had withheld wage increases (opens in new tab) to some of its quality assurance employees as retaliation for their unionization efforts.

These efforts are having a slow but sure impact: In June, Activision Blizzard ended its opposition to unionization efforts among Raven Software QA workers and agreed to enter into “good faith negotiations.” (opens in new tab)” with the Communications Workers of America, the parent organization of the Game Workers Alliance union. That same month, Microsoft (which is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $$68.7 billion (opens in new tab)) reached a “groundbreaking agreement (opens in new tab)” over union negotiations with the CWA, while Activision Blizzard shareholders rejected the board's recommendations and voted in favor of creating an annual report (opens in new tab) on the status of the company's efforts to combat abuse, harassment and discrimination in the workplace.