Netflix targets executives at Hollywood studios, along with the lengths of their employment contracts, on a spread sheet, contacts them by personal email and subsidizes personal legal help.
These are all accusations made by Fox as a lawsuit over the streaming service’s alleged poaching tactics heads for trial in May.
“Netflix has systematically executed a blueprint for poaching,” reads a Fox motion, filed by attorney Daniel Petrocelli, and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Fox said it will seek only $1 in damages for the alleged illegal poaching in 2016 by Netflix of Fox 21 TV development executive Tara Flynn, as well as film executive Marcos Waltenberg.
Fox claims Netflix unethically practices “communications through personal email accounts, the provision of free legal counsel for executives thinking of leaving a rival studio, and indemnification in the event of litigation.”
Netflix, meanwhile, is arguing to have the case dismissed, claiming all Fox executive “fixed-term employment contracts" are bogus, anyway. It accuses Fox of “hostage-taking,” and is asking Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Cho to dismiss the case.
