Fox Sues Netflix for Poaching Two Executives

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/fox...ves/ar-BBwfwXG

Twentieth Century Fox filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Netflix of poaching two of its executives.

Netflix recently hired Marcos Waltenberg, Twentieth Century Fox’s vice president of promotions, and Tara Flynn, who was a creative executive at Fox 21. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Netflix has embarked on a strategy of stealing Fox’s executives.

The suit accuses the streaming company of “a brazen campaign to unlawfully target, recruit, and poach valuable Fox executives by illegally inducing them to break their employment contracts with Fox to work at Netflix.”

Netflix hired Flynn in August, and Waltenberg in January. According to the suit, Flynn was under contract at Fox through November 2019. Waltenberg’s Fox contract was set to expire at the end of 2016, though Fox had an option to extend it for an additional two years.

As a result of the poaching, the suit contends, “Fox has suffered great and irreparable harm, including loss of Fox’s ability to contract for a stable workforce, for the disruption to Fox’s corporate planning, and for the injury to Fox’s business reputation and goodwill.”

“As our complaint explains, we filed this lawsuit because we believe Netflix is defiantly flouting the law by soliciting and inducing employees to break their contracts,” a Fox spokesman said in a statement. “We intend to seek all available remedies to enforce our rights and hold Netflix accountable for its wrongful behavior.”

Netflix vowed to fight the lawsuit “vigorously.”

“We do not believe Fox’s use of fixed term employment contracts in this manner are enforceable,” a Netflix spokesman said. “We believe in employee mobility and will fight for the right to hire great colleagues no matter where they work.”

Fuck Fox....

Edit: Also I wasn't sure if I should post this in offtopic or here so mods put where u wish.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Fuck Fox....

Hm? If their claim is true, then it would actually be well within their right to take action as a result of people prematurely breaking their contracts. As to why the suit is directed at Netflix instead of the executives themselves is ambiguous, perhaps they believe they can prove that Netflix was responsible for their defection?

[Templar 331]

Netflix is a competitor so of course they'd go after them instead of the ones breaking their contract. I don't know of the laws pertaining to this situation but I don't see Fox wasting money on a lawsuit unless they have a way to win besides "they took MY people!!!"

[RobertoCarlos]

Fox is bleeding money and just trying to stay alive. Natural response if a little douchey.

Cant stop the future fox baby.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Fox is bleeding money and just trying to stay alive. Natural response if a little douchey.

Cant stop the future fox baby.

A suit over two oathbreakers isn't going to save a sinking ship. It's more about ethics than anything.

[Tradewind]

Meh, if they had non competes in their contracts, they're well within their rights.

[Morrigenn]

A suit over two oathbreakers isn't going to save a sinking ship. It's more about ethics than anything.

If it's about ethics.... Fox loses.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If it's about ethics.... Fox loses.

Would you please elaborate?

[dextersmith]

Hm? If their claim is true, then it would actually be well within their right to take action as a result of people prematurely breaking their contracts. As to why the suit is directed at Netflix instead of the executives themselves is ambiguous, perhaps they believe they can prove that Netflix was responsible for their defection?

Probably to send a strong message and set a precedent to other poachers.

[Sorshen]

I hope they crash and burn.

[eschatological]

Employee contracts are an interesting area of law. Technically, two private entities can agree to any reasonable contract. It seems like Netflix is pursuing the idea that a fixed term contract is unreasonable and thus not enforceable, and, at the base of it, they're right. Fox can't make anyone work for them, that'd be indentured servitude, no matter how well they paid them. But the contract itself will be all about the penalties of breaking a contract early. And I'm sure that Fox had non-competes in there, because it's standard across most industries, precisely to protect against this kind of "poaching."

[dextersmith]

Fox is bleeding money and just trying to stay alive. Natural response if a little douchey.

Cant stop the future fox baby.

I think they've made some really bad choices in cancelling some shows.

[Jotaux]

Meh, if they had non competes in their contracts, they're well within their rights.

Is it really on netflix though? or is it the responsibility of those under contract not to break that contract? I'm not a lawyer so my knowledge is kind of limited in this area.

[Zelorra]

Good luck wasting some money...

[Milchshake]

Hm? If their claim is true, then it would actually be well within their right to take action as a result of people prematurely breaking their contracts. As to why the suit is directed at Netflix instead of the executives themselves is ambiguous, perhaps they believe they can prove that Netflix was responsible for their defection?

Suing the talent is a big no no in Hollywood. So suing the company that hired them is the passive aggressive next best thing.

[Sierra85]

alls fair in love and war - but not business?

[jimboa24]

The fact of the matter is, poaching employees is legal.

Fox doesn't really have a prayer in terms of winning any damages because Netflix hasn't actually broken any laws. Even if they aggressively pursued employees to jump ship, the only way they could be sued by Fox is if they used illegal means (like blackmail) to force employees to leave Fox for them. The key word in Fox's claim is "inducing." The only way they can hope to win this suit is if they can prove that Netflix used criminal methods to win over employees. Making them a better offer as incentive to break their contracts doesn't count as criminal because it's not criminal.

The only ones that Fox can sue with a reasonable expectation of winning are the actual employees who broke their contracts. Because if they go to a judge with a complaint that Netflix is soliciting their talent with better offers in an attempt to poach employees, a judge is going to shrug and say, "so what?" Even in a civil court.