Back in July of last year it was revealed that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH was filing a lawsuit against gaming publisher Activision Blizzard for alleged sexual harassment and "frat boy" culture found to be rife within the company. Since the allegations initially came to light, there have been many developments in the case against the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publishers, with new lawsuits being taken up, and calls for the CEO Bobby Kotick to resign.
Recently, Activision Blizzard has sought to dismiss the case. It has asked a state court to throw out the lawsuit against it because Activision Blizzard believes that the DFEH failed to properly investigate its claims prior to the filing of the lawsuit. Moreover, the DFEH is accused of failing to negotiate a resolution or mediate with the company before taking legal action against Activision Blizzard. This essentially means that Activision Blizzard believes the DFEH has broken its own rules by not following due process.
Activision Blizzard also wants the case against it dismissed due to the "unfair damage" it has caused to the company's representation. While this is rather subjective, it is possible to see damage caused to Activision Blizzard through another lawsuit filed by the company's investors, who believe that it could've warned them about the incoming hit to their stock value. However, this lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was dismissed by a California Judge.
In April, Activision Blizzard requested that the DFEH's case against it be paused due to a conflict with the latter and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC. The EEOC's lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was settled rather quickly, as it came to an end in September, resulting in an $18 million settlement and promises to fix the damage caused by discrimination. The DFEH was unhappy with the rapid nature of the EEOC's lawsuit, believing it could harm its own case against the publisher. While the EEOC and DFEH came to terms, Activision Blizzard wanted the case paused, but it was denied despite an alleged conflict of interest.
For the request to the case to be dismissed, Activision Blizzard has also referenced the EEOC case, as the publisher believes the DFEH has stepped on the EEOC's toes slightly. The DFEH previously agreed to focus on the gender discrimination claims around pay and promotions, while the EEOC would take charge of the harassment allegations. However, Activision Blizzard believes the DFEH's case is looking to include everything that the former is accused of. So far, there has been no response from the DFEH, though, the agency has stated it would make a statement in its court filings.