Exploring Vicarious Liability to Remedy the #E-Too Movement

The esports, or competitive video gaming, industry is an exciting area of economic and cultural growth. Gaming can facilitate interpersonal connection, shared problem-solving, and creativity. Players may purchase a game, watch a streamer play it online, join an online gaming community, attend a tournament, compete professionally, or find employment in game development or a related field. The gaming industry generates enormous economic value and employs tens of thousands of people in the UK alone. However, the esports sector does not extend its benefits equally. Women are regularly verbally harassed in video games, countless women have been groped at esports events, women have been raped by professional players, underage fans have been groomed. Abuse is endemic to online gaming communities. This article argues that it is necessary to hold esports teams vicariously liable for the harms caused by professional players in order to remedy abuse in online games. The first section proposes that serious instances of abuse committed by professional esports players have normalised misogyny in gaming communities and proposes that non-tortious solutions are inadequate. The second section considers civil legal options and argues that, whilst individual players could be held liable in tort, the lack of means of most abusers renders direct claims worthless. Finally, section three shows that esports teams could be held vicariously liable for abuse if three doctrinal ambiguities were clarified. It is concluded that these ambiguities should be resolved in order to compel esports teams to compensate victims and lessen abuse by improving social norms in online gaming communities.