More than two years after the release of FIFA 14, EA Sports, a leading publisher of competitive sports games, has become the target of an intense legal and political storm that threatens to tear down the company’s core values.
The fallout from the lawsuit is likely to reach beyond EA Sports.
In the wake of the lawsuit, EA has become a target of conservative political activists, including former president Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenTrump attacks Dems on healthcare law Overnight Health Care: Senators target surprise medical bills | Group looks to delay key bills | House votes to keep ’em all | Biden is ‘not happy’ about Senate votes on Kavanaugh MORE (D-Mass.).
The company has also been at the center of several controversies, including a controversy over its controversial decision to release a video depicting the death of a Native American man, whose family had to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit.
The company had been facing pressure from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was seeking to have the video removed from its servers.
“It is no surprise that EA Sports would be the target for political attacks in response to the ongoing lawsuit,” ACLU deputy legal director Amy Goldstein told Recode.
“EA has long been a target for anti-LGBTQ groups who have sought to vilify the company and its athletes.
These kinds of attacks are especially damaging for the sports industry because sports provide millions of dollars in revenue to the economy.
The public deserves to know what’s going on at EA Sports.”
The company’s CEO, Brian Burke, said in a statement Tuesday that the lawsuit “is simply an attempt to delegitimize EA Sports’ efforts to create and support inclusive environments.”
The lawsuit alleges that Burke and EA Games failed to adequately investigate allegations of misconduct against players and that the company failed to conduct a thorough review of allegations of sexual assault.
The lawsuit also alleges that EA Games did not have enough staff to investigate allegations that players had engaged in harassment.
The suit also alleges Burke and other EA employees violated the federal Communications Decency Act by failing to remove sexually explicit material from its website, and that EA and Burke failed to disclose the sexual harassment allegations against players to employees, a requirement under federal law.
Burke has denied the allegations in the suit.
The controversy over EA Sports has continued since the company released its first game, FIFA 13, in 2007.
A federal judge ruled in August that the game violated federal law when it failed to provide information to users about the existence of a separate, anonymous, video game account that featured athletes who had engaged with players in sexual ways.
In its motion to dismiss, EA sought a declaratory judgment that the federal law violated the First Amendment, but the judge denied that request.
The ruling is unlikely to change EA’s stance on the issue.
In a statement, the company said: “We are confident that the court’s ruling will protect all of our players from discrimination and harassment.”
The Justice Department said that it would not defend the case.
