Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the tech giant of knowingly persuading its contract workers to break their contracts, in a dispute centered on the recent hiring of longtime HBO Max marketing chief Pia Barlow.
The suit, filed July 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges intentional interference with contract, breach of contract and unfair competition.
WBD alleges that Amazon “quickly sought to pirate away a number of contract employees” rather than build its own manufacturing and marketing workforce from scratch, describing the company in its complaint as a “digital bull in a china shop.”
Barlow, formerly executive vice president of originals marketing at HBO Max, was announced Friday by Amazon MGM Studios as its new head of series marketing, a role she will begin Aug. 3, reporting to global marketing chief Sue Kroll.
According to the lawsuit, Barlow’s contract with WarnerMedia Services was not set to expire until October 31, 2027, and she had “freely and expressly agreed to remain employed” for its duration.
WBD’s lawyers argue that Amazon deliberately encouraged her to break that agreement regardless.
“Despite being aware of Barlow’s ongoing contractual obligation to WMS, of which WBD is a beneficiary, Amazon brazenly and knowingly induced Barlow to breach the employment agreement,” the filing states, adding elsewhere that “Amazon must be stopped; it should not be allowed to profit from its illegal and tortious conduct.”
WBD is seeking damages as well as a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing Amazon from hiring any of its contract workers before their terms expire.
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
This is not the first legal battle of its kind between a legacy media company and a tech platform over executive poaching: Disney sued YouTube last year after hiring former ESPN executive Justin Connolly, a dispute that was ultimately settled out of court, while Netflix spent five years fighting a similar suit brought by 20th Century Fox in 2021.
The case is expected to test the enforcement of fixed-term executive contracts in Hollywood at a time when streaming platforms are increasingly competing for the same pool of experienced entertainment marketing talent.
