The Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against one of the largest game developers over its taxing esports team salaries and suppressing competition between teams.
Activision Blizzard, the developer of Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Starcraft II, was sued on Tuesday by the DOJ. The agency alleged that the company had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, which bans anticompetitive actions by companies to fix wages. The company is separately under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission, which moved to block Microsoft from acquiring it.
"Video games and esports are among the most popular and fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world today, and professional esports players — like all workers — deserve the benefits of competition for their services. Activision's conduct prevented that from happening," DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said in a statement.
Overwatch esports teams have been pushing Activision Blizzard to provide more wages. Several teams have kept the United Kingdom-based law firm Sheridans on call to negotiate for an economic relief package, according to Sports Business Journal. The teams have regularly been losing money, and the fees have likely accentuated this problem.Microsoft has been attempting to purchase Activision Blizzard since last year. The FTC filed to block the $68.
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