The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on September 16th against Mr. Beast and Amazon, which plans to distribute the show, on behalf of five unnamed participants in YouTuber Mr. Beast’s Beast Games. The lawsuit has also been filed as a class action lawsuit.
Beast Games is the brainchild of Jimmy Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast. In this game show, contestants take on different challenges for a chance to win a $5 million prize. There can only be one winner out of 1,000 contestants, so the prize money goes to the last person standing.
When the five contestants joined the game show, they each had hopes of winning a cash prize, but they were completely unprepared for the poor working conditions, abuse, and harassment they experienced. Among the 14 complaints were allegations of not paying minimum wage, sexual harassment, false advertising, and failure to provide meal and break breaks.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on behalf of all other Beast Games contestants. Much of the lawsuit is being redacted, including the names of the contestants and the exact details of the abuse. It focuses on the experiences of female contestants. The lawyers argue that the work environment “fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism while production staff inaction”
Although the participants were considered employees under California law, Mr.Beast and Amazon allegedly misclassified them, reaping tax credits of about $2 million. Also, when they arrived on set, there were far more participants competing for the prize than the total of 1,000, making it less likely that anyone would win. According to The New York Times, the total number of participants was about 2,000, and Mr.Beast said that was the plan from the beginning. The plaintiffs argued that this significantly reduced the chances of anyone winning and was false advertising. To make matters worse, the show’s organizers did not give the participants meal and rest breaks as required by California law. According to the lawsuit, some of the show’s participants suffered injuries that “are continuing and will continue to do so in the future.”
This isn’t the first time MrBeast has been embroiled in a lawsuit. Last year, he sued Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) for allegedly damaging his reputation through poor quality MrBeast Burgers. VDC countersued MrBeast, seeking $100 million in damages.
Variety reports that MrBeast and Amazon have yet to comment on the lawsuit, with MrBeast declining to comment. A release date for Beast Games, which will be released on Amazon Prime Video, has yet to be announced.
