The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Activision Blizzard Inc. for imposing rules that limited competition for players in Overwatch and Call of Duty professional esports leagues and suppressed the wages of esports players in these leagues in violation of the Sherman Act.
It is mentioned by the DOJ that professional esports players -like all workers- deserve the benefits of wages for their services and Activision’s conduct prevented that from happening. Additionally, DOJ emphasized that today’s lawsuit makes clear that the Antitrust Division remains committed to protecting workers across all types of industries from anticompetitive conduct. As alleged in the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in two esports leagues owned by Activision, Activision and the independently-owned teams in each league implemented a so-called “Competitive Balance Tax” and the tax was structured to penalize teams in the Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues, respectively, if a team’s player wages exceeded a threshold set by Activision. At the same time, the Antitrust Division filed a proposed consent decree to address its competition concerns. If approved by the Court, the proposed consent decree would prohibit Activision from imposing any rule that would, directly or indirectly, limit player wages in any of Activision’s professional esports leagues, or that would tax, fine, or otherwise penalize any team for exceeding a certain amount of wages for its players.
(DOJ – 04.03.2023)
NAZALI TAX & LEGAL