DOJ Antitrust’s Latest Case Seeks To Protect Esports Players From Activision-Blizzards’ Labor Abuses
Washington, D.C. — In response to a new case filed by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division against videogame developer Activision-Blizzard for allegedly suppressing esports athletes’ wages through anticompetitive salary caps, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.
“We’re thrilled to see the Department of Justice bring another Section 1 case to protect workers and ensure dominant firms like Activision can’t exploit them,” said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “As the agency’s case alleges, Activision abused its massive market power over the e-sports industry to impose unfair rules that limited players’ wages and benefits. This case demonstrates the Antitrust Division’s clear understanding of the relationship between corporate power and labor abuses, and its willingness to use our antitrust laws to protect employees from attempts to artificially suppress earnings and other employee benefits.”
Activision has a long history of labor violations, and its voluntary abandonment of the salary cap in 2021 is simply not enough to protect e-sport athletes down the road. The Justice Department is right to seek a court order prohibiting any future attempts to suppress their earnings.
The case against Activision-Blizzard comes after successful labor-related antitrust complaints by the agency, including a criminal no-poach case victory to protect Nevada nurses and a court win that blocked the megamerger between publishing giants Simon Schuster and Penguin Random House.
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.