Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon of illegally poaching executives

In Brief

Warner Bros. Discovery filed a suit this week accusing Amazon of interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, and unfair competition.

As reported by Deadline, the lawsuit alleges Amazon has been “hurriedly seeking to pirate distant a fig of contracted employees,” including Pia Barlow, an HBO Max selling enforcement who precocious joined Amazon MGM Studios. Warner Bros. (whose pending acquisition by Paramount has been paused for astatine slightest a fewer months) said Barlow’s employment declaration was “not acceptable to expire until October 31, 2027.”

“In blatant disregard of established California law, Amazon has gone rogue by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees with word employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed up with the acceptable assurance that Amazon volition support and indemnify them should they beryllium held to relationship for their blatantly unlawful acts,” Warner Bros. said.

The institution besides accused Amazon of seeking to “tortiously induce different WBD worker to breach their word employment agreement, which was not acceptable to expire until December 2027,” though that enforcement (believed to beryllium HBO programming enforcement Francesca Orsi) yet stayed astatine Warner Bros.

Deadline noted that this suit is apt to renew debates astir whether word employment agreements are really enforceable nether California law.

Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment.

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