Spotify Sued For Gender Discrimination As Female Exec Exits

Spotify has been sued over allegations of defamation and gender discrimination. Former sales exec Hong Perez filed suit in N.Y. Supreme Court Tuesday, accusing the streamer of systemically discriminating against female employees.

The suit alleges that Hong’s boss, Brian Berner, selected an all-male group to attend Sundance in 2016 and 2017, and that some of the men got into a physical altercation during one of the trips, according to Variety. It also alleges that when back in March, Berner found himself in trouble with his supervisors for a discounting arrangement with a buyer and his acceptance of free tickets to Madison Square Garden, that he passed the buck blaming Hong for the situation, and then firing her for “violations of the company’s Code of Conduct.”

Hong has also made the claim that a male Spotify executive was promoted after receiving warnings for sexual harassment, that the global head of sales gave higher compensation and equity to men than to women. She goes on to quote the company’s CFO as saying that “he does not care about diversity at the company,” and that an HR executive told staffers that his favorite curse word was “c—.”

A Spotify rep told Variety that “the claims were without merit.”  [CelebrityAccess]

Another Executive Exits

It what is likely an unrelated departure,  AdAge reports that Jackie Jantos, VP of brand creative, is leaving the streamer, just days after CMO Seth Farbman announced his exit.  

Jantos becomes the 10th Spotify executive to leave the company in the last 18 months.

MORE: Spotify Marketing Head Seth Farbman Is 9th Top Executive To Exit In Last 18 Months