Attorneys for Warner Bros. Discovery claim that “Amazon has chosen to ride on the coattails of other well-established Hollywood mainstays such as Plaintiffs” by poaching their employees “rather than buid[ing] its entertainment-production workforce from the ground up.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the digital goliath of engineering an “illegal” and concerted campaign to poach employees.
“The one-time bookseller turned purveyor of (practically) everything under the sun, including, in roughly the last decade, original entertainment content, did not start out as a studio or production company,” the lawsuit says. According to Variety, attorneys for Warner Bros. Discovery claim that “Amazon has chosen to ride on the coattails of other well-established Hollywood mainstays such as Plaintiffs” by poaching their employees “rather than buid[ing] its entertainment-production workforce from the ground up.”
“In blatant disregard of established California law, Amazon has gone rogue by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees with term employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed up with the ready assurance that Amazon will defend and indemnify them should they be held to account for their blatantly unlawful acts,” the lawsuit alleges. “There is perhaps no better example of Amazon’s lawless employee shopping spree than WarnerMedia Services employee Pia Barlow, a senior WMS marketing employee whose term employment contract was not set to expire until October 31, 2027.”
Attorneys for Warner Bros. say that, before suing and “upon becoming aware of Barlow’s intending to breach her Employment Agreement and accept employment with Amazon,” it contacted the company to notify it, in writing, “of the existence and relevant terms of [Barlow’s] Employment Agreement.”
Despite knowing that Barlow was bound by an agreement, Warner Bros. claims, the company chose to “brazenly and deliberately” induce “Barlow to breach the employment agreement by packing up and decamping to Amazon more than 16 months before its expiration.”
The lawsuit describes, in detail, another alleged poaching attempt.
“Just a few weeks before Amazon’s interference with Barlow’s term employment contract with WMS, Amazon similarly endeavored to tortiously induce another WBD employee to breach their term employment agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2027,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fortunately, in that instance, Amazon ultimately was unsuccessful in its efforts to raid WBD’s workforce as to that particular executive.”
Deadline notes that this incident most likely describes Amazon’s attempted acquisition of Francesa Orsi, one of HBO’s top programming executives who was recently “courted” for the position of Head of Drama and Comedy at Amazon-owned MGM Studios. The job, however, eventually splintered into three separate positions.
The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction prohibiting Amazon from poaching or attempting to poach other Warner Bros. employees.
Sources
Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon of illegally poaching executives
Warner Bros. Sues Amazon, Accusing Company of “Seeking to Pirate Away Employees”
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