Spotify Sued By Former Executive for Gender Discrimination and Equal Pay Violation

A new lawsuit filed by a former executive against streaming giant Spotify paints the organization’s corporate culture as a discriminatory one in which female employees were treated differently than their male counterparts. Pitchfork reports the lawsuit was filed by Hong Perez, a former sales executive with the organization in the New York Supreme Court. She filed the suit against former boss Brian Berner and the company.

The lawsuit describes the actions of Berner, who allegedly took a group of men to Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and 2017. Additionally, in the lawsuit she claims that the company fired her after Berner blamed her when he was disciplined for receiving free tickets and issues with a discounting deal (it’s unclear from the story whether or not these are related incidents).

After Perez was fired, she says the company sent out a letter to the sales team explaining that she’d violated the code of conduct of the company. Going back to those trips to the Sundance Festival, Perez claims the male members of the staff talked about drug use during these corporate trips and also one male staff member was involved in a physical altercation, yet they weren’t disciplined, let alone terminated, for these violations. The complaint states “Berner was well aware of male employees violating the code of conduct, yet did nothing.”

The complaint has a few more grievances against the company. The lawsuit claimed that one male staff member was promoted despite repeated warnings for sexual harassment. Male-only trips to Atlantic City strip clubs were also described, the CFO was accused of saying he didn’t care about diversity at the company, and the head of HR at Spotify allegedly claimed in an all-staff meeting that his favorite curse word is “cunt.” An important component of the lawsuit is the claim that men were awarded higher compensation than women in the company.

In response to the lawsuit, Spotify’s spokesperson relayed a message. “At Spotify, we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at any level. While we cannot comment on the specific details of a pending litigation, these claims are without merit.”