The Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon illegally poached executives

Warner Bros. has raised Discovery filed a lawsuit this week accusing Amazon of interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, and unfair competition.

As Deadline reported, the lawsuit alleges that Amazon “hastily sought to poach a number of contract employees,” including Bea Barlow, the HBO Max marketing executive who recently joined Amazon’s MGM Studios. Warner Bros. said: (For which Paramount’s pending acquisition has been put on pause for at least a few months) Barlow’s employment contract “was not scheduled to expire until October 31, 2027.”

“In blatant disregard for applicable California law, Amazon went awry by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees under fixed-term employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed by ready assurances that Amazon would defend and indemnify them if they were held accountable for their blatantly unlawful actions,” Warner Bros. said.

The company also accused Amazon of seeking to “maliciously induce another WBD employee to violate his employment agreement, which was not scheduled to expire until December 2027,” though that executive (believed to be HBO programming executive Francesca Orci) ultimately remained at Warner Bros.

Deadline noted that this lawsuit is likely to renew discussions about whether fixed-term employment agreements are actually enforceable under California law.

Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment.