The compliance affair surrounding former Bild editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt has legal consequences for the Axel Springer Group. According to information from Medieninsider, a former mistress of Bild’s ex-editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, who also testified against him during the internal investigation, has filed a lawsuit for damages. The lawsuit was filed in a U.S. court.
Medieninsider has the 132 page complaint. It was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in mid-August and has already been accepted by the court. The first hearing date has been set for mid-December.
The lawsuit is directed against U.S.-based Axel Springer Services Inc. as well as Bild GmbH and up to 25 other legal entities or individuals, currently unspecified. The lawsuit does not demand a specific sum of damages. Both this and the unknown defendants are a special feature of American civil law. All aspects are to be determined during the proceedings.
The fact that the lawsuit is being heard in the USA is possible because the former mistress lives there and also worked in California during her time working for Bild at Axel Springer. She refers to the fact that the legal violations were also committed at that time and thus fall under California law.
Axel Springer [corp.] stands accused of legal violations on a total of eleven counts, including sexual harassment, retaliation, aiding and abetting harassment, discrimination and retaliation, as well as the allegation that it did nothing to stop them. In addition, the lawsuit contains several allegations of violations of employee rights.
The Axel Springer Group did not wish to comment on the complaint or the content of the lawsuit when contacted by Medieninsider. It said it would first examine the complaint.
In the complaint, details and processes about the affair with Julian Reichelt are also outlined on several dozen pages. It is the first time that the accusations made against him at the time are publicly listed in such detail.
Medieninsider reports on all the details of the lawsuit in German at Medieninsider.com
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