DOJ investigates Overwatch League over salary caps
Or no longer it is no longer upright eSports avid gamers’ promotional presents coming below scrutiny. Dot Esports has learned that the Department of Justice has launched an antitrust inquiry into Overwatch League soft salary caps meant to quit teams from procuring their solution to victory. The investigation is rarely any longer criminal, per DE‘s sources, however DOJ trial attorney Kathleen Simpson Kiernan is reportedly wondering in regards to the inability of a avid gamers’ union that would per chance per chance let the league claim the identical labor exemptions you peep in worn unionized sports leagues.
The cap, which has never been publicly printed, reportedly centers on a “aggressive stability tax” that successfully forces teams to pay twice in the event that they pass the salary cap — as soon as for the avid gamers, and again for the league to redistribute funds amongst other teams. That cap modified into rumored to be $1.6 million in 2020, however DE understood that no teams had “naturally” damaged that cap per usual pro player charges.
Activision Blizzard didn’t elaborate on the investigation, however confirmed the basic inquiry and talked about it modified into “cooperating accordingly.”
This investigation would per chance per chance no longer necessarily lead to a serious shakeup of the Overwatch aggressive scene. It does, however, mark the rising stature of eSports in the US. Aggressive gaming is now indispensable sufficient that player pay is a serious narrate for officials, even there are no major indicators of peril.
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