Last summer, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision, alleging that the company tolerated a culture of sexual harassment, a toxic work environment, and inequality.
According to court documents obtained by AFP on Thursday, the DFEH requested access to any complaint or investigation involving 19 Activision employees, including CEO Bobby Kotick, in late January.
The agency also asked for access to any police files relating to complaints filed at Activision's BlizzCon conventions from 2015 to 2019, as well as at the offices of its subsidiary Blizzard in Irvine and Activision in Santa Monica, beginning June 20, 2021.
The new requests come just weeks after Microsoft announced its intention to pay $68.7 billion for Activision Blizzard, the maker of "Call of Duty" and "Candy Crush."
The documents do not directly name the individuals for whom the DFEH has requested information, but they do state that the Activision CEO and the former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment are on the list.
According to an Activision spokesperson, the DFEH requests serve "no legitimate purpose," as they contain "sensitive, confidential information with no limits or relative scope."
Instead, they are "another questionable tactic in DFEH's broader effort to derail" Activision's settlement with a federal agency, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the spokesperson (EEOC).
This agency had negotiated with Activision to establish a $18 million compensation fund for victims of harassment.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has also expanded its own investigation into Activision. The investigation was launched in September to determine whether the company had disclosed its harassment and discrimination complaints adequately.
According to the Journal, the SEC recently requested documents pertaining to a significantly expanded list of current and former executives, going back further than the initial request.