As a company trying to position its self for not just gender discrimination but racial imbalance considering their launch of a bootcamp to help women of color in the UK break into the world of podcasting, this lawsuit is bad for them.

Spotify is being sued for gender discrimination by a former employee who alleges that the company orchestrated “boys’ trips” full of drugs and strip clubs and regularly passed over women for promotion.

According to Variety, sales executive Hong Perez filed suit on Tuesday in New York Supreme Court. In the lawsuit, Perez lays out a case against a company that she claims operated under a “double standard,” treating its female employees worse than their male counterparts.
To back up her case, Perez alleges that her boss, Brian Berner, arranged all-male trips to Sundance Film Festival. She added that another executive in the company received a promotion even after being warned repeatedly for incidents of sexual harassment. Perez said that this executive took male sales staff to strip clubs in Atlantic City. Perez went on to claim that the CFO said he “does not care about diversity at the company” at a town hall.
That’s far from the image that the global streaming behemoth tries to create of itself. The platform recently launched a bootcamp to help women of color in the UK break into the world of podcasting. Perez’s allegations paint a much different picture of the company that’s actively trying to be seen as a booster for women.

In the lawsuit, Perez claims that the global head of sales offered better pay packages and benefits to men than women. Perez also says that she was ultimately forced out of the company after her supervisor Berner passed the buck to her on violations of the company’s code of conduct. Berner allegedly offered an unapproved discount to a buyer and accepted free tickets to Madison Square Garden. Perez also claims he shoveled the blame for the system on to her and fired her for the offenses.
In addition to the claim of gender discrimination, Perez is suing for defamation.