ESG Controversy Case Study:

Activision Blizzard

May 23, 2022

Tracking the ESG events surrounding companies, products or individuals associated with your brand, portfolio or supply chain can help you manage corporate and investment risk, and get ahead of the curve.

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During the summer of 2021, Activision Blizzard was accused of covering up allegations of workplace abuse, harassment, and discrimination, which led to employee walkouts and protests. Several days after the lawsuit was filed by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, it was revealed that management had prior knowledge of these allegations, but failed to take remedial action. The RavenPack ESG Controversy Framework detected these events as follows:

ESG Controversy Case Study:

Activision Blizzard

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Contr o v ersy Score 0 2 4 J ul 2021 Oct 2021 J an 2022 Labor conditions Employee relations Management and board July 20th, 2021 The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard Inc, denouncing a culture of harassment and discrimination. July 27th, 2021 Employees stage a walkout to protest the toxic culture at the company. Separately, it is revealed that management had prior knowledge of these allegations but failed to take action. November 16th, 2021 A Wall Street Journal report is published including more details about the workplace culture at Activision, alleging that the CEO Bobby Kotick had prior knowledge of the matter from internal reports.

It's often difficult to follow all the news to build a complete ESG picture, particularly when events are less reported. Benefits from local and global newswire coverage, RavenPack’s ESG Controversy Framework gives investors the opportunity to identify companies involved in controversial events reported in local news outlets before the information reaches the mainstream media. Furthermore, RavenPack’s decades-long news archive and global coverage provides investors with the ability to derive insights from a unique source of sustainability signals.

Check out other ESG controversy case studies that have been widely reported, to understand how the RavenPack ESG Controversy Framework functions, or request a trial to explore how it could help you stay on top of ESG controversies impacting your brands or portfolios.

Request a trial to start tracking ESG events related to your brand or portfolio.


About RavenPack ESG Controversy Scoring Framework

RavenPack’s ESG Controversy Scoring Framework is based on real-time detections of events across 40,000+ news sources in 13 different languages. It follows an event-based approach that can help assess the extent of a firm’s ESG controversy exposure through time by monitoring real-time news coverage. Learn More




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