Netflix Slammed with Yet Another Lawsuit, Accused of Ignoring 'Ethical and Legal Obligations'
Societal dependency on online streaming services such as Netflix may have increased, but the company’s growing influence has not shielded it from several high-profile controversies.
The most recent one involves a lawsuit filed against Netflix by the video game corporation Activision Blizzard accusing the streaming service of engaging in business practices without “regard to its ethical and legal obligations.”
In a lawsuit obtained by Deadline, Activsion alleged that Netflix illegally poached its chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann, in 2018.
“To shape its workforce to its desires, Netflix not only ruthlessly fires its own employees that it deems ‘adequate,’ but is engaged in a years-long campaign of unlawfully poaching executives from Netflix’s competitors regardless of their contractual obligations,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the 13-page lawsuit, Netflix allegedly recruited Neumann just as Activision was “negotiating with Netflix over a commercial partnership to distribute Activision’s linear media content.”
Netflix has faced lawsuits like this before from corporations such as Fox and ViacomCBS, with both companies taking legal action against the streaming service for similar accusations of “executive snatching.”
Netflix justified its actions by claiming not to be bound by the state of California’s employment statutes, citing employee “freedom” against the “Hollywood establishment.”
Attorneys for Activision refuted this in the complaint, writing, “Netflix’s unlawful conduct is not trailblazing or innovative — it is just reflective of Netflix’s contempt for the law of the State of California.”
It should be noted Netflix’s expansion into creating feature films, according to TechCrunch, led to 24 Oscar nominations for the company at the 2019 awards show, an honor that’s usually reserved for Hollywood studios.
In addition to some of the controversies happening behind the scenes, Netflix has also been subjected to backlash for streaming “Cuties,” a foreign film that many people felt was sexually exploitative of children.
The movie included close-up shots of underage girls in compromising positions, and one scene showed a young girl taking a picture of her genitalia.
Back in September, Netflix’s subscription cancellations reached a multi-year high in response to the streamer’s decision to promote the film, according to research YipitData shared with Variety magazine.
The content of “Cuties” was considered to be so graphic that a Texas grand jury indicted Netflix for promoting “visual material which depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created.”
Debates about the film’s portrayal of minors even attracted the attention of several prominent politicians, such as Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, as well as Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
.@Netflix should explain to the public why it is distributing a film, “Cuties,” that appears to sexually exploit children and endanger child welfare pic.twitter.com/OZH4HCLy0Y
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 11, 2020
Claiming that ‘Cuties’ is “social commentary” doesn’t excuse the depiction of real-life children performing extended, pornographic dance routines. https://t.co/AQDVl634DU
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) September 15, 2020
Hawley questioned in a tweet why Netflix would distribute a film that “appears to sexually exploit children,” and Cotton noted even if one categorizes the movie as “social commentary,” that wouldn’t excuse the “real-life children performing extended, pornographic dance routines.”
Gabbard accused Netflix of being “complicit” in “the child sex trafficking trade,” calling attention to the fact that her friend’s 13-year-old daughter had been a victim of the practice.
However, in a Q&A at the virtual Mipcom conference in October, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the choice to promote “Cuties,” saying the movie was a “coming-of-age film” that had been “misunderstood” by American audiences.
Whether it’s on-screen or behind the scenes, Netflix appears to be unable to avoid controversy in 2020.
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