Valve Sues Activision-Blizzard Over Low Payout
Valve has sued Activision-Blizzard this week for a lower then expected payout over the dispute with Sierra Entertainment several years ago. The following story comes from GamePolitics:
Since Sierra Entertainment was merged by Vivendi and Activision into Activision-Blizzard they inherited the lawsuit. The lawsuit was over the distribution in internet cafe's which caused Valve to pull out of the publisher and sign Electronic Arts for future publishing deals.
On Tuesday Valve filed suit against Activision Blizzard in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The suit alleges that Activision refused to honor an agreement to abide by an arbitrator's April 6th award decision involving a 2002 dispute over royalties.
The arbitrator in that case awarded Valve $2,391,932, an amount that Valve says is less than it sought, but which it will accept because both parties agreed to be bound by the arbitration process.
Activision, however, challenged the award, claiming that Valve had been overpaid by $424,136 in years past. For its part Valve alleges that Activision failed to properly raise this issue before the abitrator whom, the suit claims, refused to consider it for procedural reasons.
Against that backdrop, Activision cut Valve a check last week for $1,967,796 - the amount handed down by the arbitrator less the disputed $424K. According to Valve's suit, Activision said that it wouldn't pay the rest and if Valve went to court Activision would countersue. Valve has apparently called Activision's bluff and the parties are now once again at odds.
The arbitrator in that case awarded Valve $2,391,932, an amount that Valve says is less than it sought, but which it will accept because both parties agreed to be bound by the arbitration process.
Activision, however, challenged the award, claiming that Valve had been overpaid by $424,136 in years past. For its part Valve alleges that Activision failed to properly raise this issue before the abitrator whom, the suit claims, refused to consider it for procedural reasons.
Against that backdrop, Activision cut Valve a check last week for $1,967,796 - the amount handed down by the arbitrator less the disputed $424K. According to Valve's suit, Activision said that it wouldn't pay the rest and if Valve went to court Activision would countersue. Valve has apparently called Activision's bluff and the parties are now once again at odds.
Since Sierra Entertainment was merged by Vivendi and Activision into Activision-Blizzard they inherited the lawsuit. The lawsuit was over the distribution in internet cafe's which caused Valve to pull out of the publisher and sign Electronic Arts for future publishing deals.
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