Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon of illegally poaching executives

华纳兄弟起诉亚马逊非法挖角高管

Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit this week accusing Amazon of interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, and unfair competition. As reported by Deadline, the lawsuit alleges Amazon has been “hurriedly seeking to pirate away a number of contracted employees,” including Pia Barlow, an HBO Max marketing executive who recently joined Amazon MGM Studios. 华纳兄弟探索公司（Warner Bros. Discovery）本周提起诉讼，指控亚马逊干扰合同关系、违反合同及进行不正当竞争。据《Deadline》报道，诉讼称亚马逊一直“急于挖走多名签署了合同的员工”，其中包括最近加入亚马逊米高梅影业（Amazon MGM Studios）的 HBO Max 营销高管皮娅·巴洛（Pia Barlow）。

Warner Bros. (whose pending acquisition by Paramount has been paused for at least a few months) said Barlow’s employment contract was “not set to expire until October 31, 2027.” 华纳兄弟（其与派拉蒙的收购案已暂停至少数月）表示，巴洛的雇佣合同“原定于 2027 年 10 月 31 日才到期”。

“In blatant disregard of established California law, Amazon has gone rogue by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees with term employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed up with the ready assurance that Amazon will defend and indemnify them should they be held to account for their blatantly unlawful acts,” Warner Bros. said. 华纳兄弟表示：“亚马逊公然无视加州既定法律，通过诱导原告方签署了定期雇佣协议的员工违约，并不受惩罚地行事，这种做法简直是肆无忌惮。亚马逊还向这些员工承诺，如果他们因这些明显的非法行为被追究责任，亚马逊将为他们辩护并提供赔偿。”

The company also accused Amazon of seeking to “tortiously induce another WBD employee to breach their term employment agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2027,” although that executive (believed to be HBO programming executive Francesca Orsi) ultimately stayed at Warner Bros. 该公司还指控亚马逊试图“以侵权方式诱导另一名华纳兄弟员工违反其定期雇佣协议，该协议原定于 2027 年 12 月到期”，尽管该高管（据信是 HBO 节目制作高管弗朗西斯卡·奥尔西 Francesca Orsi）最终留在了华纳兄弟。

Deadline noted that this lawsuit is likely to renew debates about whether term employment agreements are actually enforceable under California law. Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment. 《Deadline》指出，这起诉讼可能会重新引发关于定期雇佣协议在加州法律下是否真正具有法律效力的争论。亚马逊米高梅影业拒绝置评。