美国证券交易委员会(SEC)周五宣布，视频游戏开发商动视暴雪同意支付3500万美元的罚款，以解决对该公司未能维持工作场所不当行为投诉有关的披露程序，以及违反举报人保护规则的指控。
动视暴雪没有承认也没有否认SEC的指控，而是选择交钱了事。美股盘中，动视暴雪股价下跌约2%。
SEC认为，动视暴雪在2018-2021年期间，缺乏在各业务部门内收集员工投诉的程序，也没有评估是否存在任何需要公开披露的重大问题。
在2016-2021年期间，动视暴雪在其正常业务过程中执行的离职协议违反了委员会的举报人保护规则，要求前雇员在收到委员会工作人员的信息要求时通知该公司。
SEC在一份声明中表示，动视采取行动阻止前雇员与SEC工作人员进行顺畅沟通，这不仅是糟糕的公司治理，也是非法的行为。
动视的一位发言人表示，很高兴和平解决了此事，并对信息披露有信心，我们已经加强了有关工作场所报告的披露程序，并更新了离职协议的措辞。
3500万美元是一笔不小的罚款，在SEC主席Gary Gensler的领导下，SEC加大了对违法行为的处罚力度，称需要提高罚款以有效遏制企业不法行为。
近几年以来，动视一直笼罩在争议之中。此前有报道称，动视的女性员工多年来一直在抱怨公司内部的性侵犯和虐待行为。报道指出，SEC的调查了动视管理层对这些事件的了解程度，以及公司如何在内部解决这些问题。
2021年，动视同意向平等就业机会委员会支付1800万美元，以解决基于性别的骚扰和报复指控。去年3月，加州一名法官批准了这项和解协议。
与此同时，微软收购动视暴雪的交易正面临几项监管审查。美国联邦贸易委员会(FTC)于去年12月起诉阻止该交易，FTC认为，该交易将阻碍视频游戏行业的竞争，并计划在今年8月举行内部审判。
以下为SEC报道原文：
Activision Blizzard to Pay $35 Million for Failing to Maintain Disclosure Controls Related to Complaints of Workplace Misconduct and Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2023-22
Washington D.C., Feb. 3, 2023 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Activision Blizzard Inc., a video game development and publishing company, agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it failed to maintain disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that the company could assess whether its disclosures pertaining to its workforce were adequate. The company also settled charges that it violated an SEC whistleblower protection rule.
According to the SEC’s order, between 2018 and 2021, Activision Blizzard was aware that its ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees was a particularly important risk in its business, but it lacked controls and procedures among its separate business units to collect and analyze employee complaints of workplace misconduct. As a result, the company’s management lacked sufficient information to understand the volume and substance of employee complaints about workplace misconduct and did not assess whether any material issues existed that would have required public disclosure. Separately, the SEC’s order finds that, between 2016 and 2021, Activision Blizzard executed separation agreements in the ordinary course of its business that violated a Commission whistleblower protection rule by requiring former employees to provide notice to the company if they received a request for information from the Commission’s staff.
“The SEC’s order finds that Activision Blizzard failed to implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct, which left it without the means to determine whether larger issues existed that needed to be disclosed to investors,” said Jason Burt, Director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. “Moreover, taking action to impede former employees from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation is not only bad corporate governance, it is illegal.”
The SEC’s order finds that Activision Blizzard violated Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(a) and 21F-17(a). Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Activision Blizzard agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a $35 million penalty.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Eric J. Day, Yamini Piplani Grema, and Daniel M. Konosky and was assisted by Helena Engelhart Bean of the Denver Regional Office. The investigation was supervised by Danielle R. Voorhees and Mr. Burt, also of the Denver Regional Office.