Three former higher-ups at Ubisoft have been found guilty of sexually and psychologically harassing the women who worked for them at the company’s Paris studio. A French court handed out suspended sentences to the three executives, as well as fines, the highest of which was €45,000. It’s the final ruling in a sordid trial that has seen the men accused of forcefully trying to kiss female employees, ordering them to do handstands in skirts, and angrily throwing equipment across the office.
Former editorial vice-president Thomas François was found guilty of sexual harassment, psychological harassment and an attempted sexual assault, as reported in The Guardian. The court handed him a three-year suspended prison sentence, and a €30,000 fine for the crimes.
François was accused of tying a woman to an office chair with a roll of tape and pushing her into an elevator. Another woman told the court how she was forced to do handstands when she came to work in a miniskirt.
“He was my superior and I was afraid of him,” she said. “He made me do handstands. I did it to get it over with and get rid of him.”
At a themed Christmas party in 2015, François said he liked a female co-worker’s 1950s style dress, then allegedly tried to kiss her on the mouth as his colleagues restrained her. During the trial, François put much of his behaviour down to a “culture of joking around”. Another Ubisoft staff member put it differently, calling the culture at the studio a “boys’ club above the law”.
At the same trial, Serge Hascoët, former chief creative officer at Ubisoft was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment, although he was ultimately acquitted of the charge of sexual harassment itself. He got an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine.
The court heard that Hascoët’s alleged bullying behaviour includes ordering assistants to do personal tasks unrelated to their jobs, such as going to his house to collect parcel deliveries. The court heard how he once blew his nose into a tissue and handed it to a young woman working for the studio. “You can resell it,” he allegedly told her, “it’s worth gold at Ubisoft.” Hascoët’s lawyer said that the former Ubisoft chief is considering an appeal.
Meanwhile Guillaume Patrux, a former game director, was found guilty of psychological harassment. He got a 12-month suspended sentence, alongside a fine of €10,000. Patrux was accused of a variety of harassing behaviour which includes drawing swastikas on a woman’s notebook during a meeting, throwing office equipment around, cracking a whip near colleagues faces, and holding a cigarette lighter so close to a male employee’s face that his beard caught alight. All three men had denied the charges.
The trial’s verdict brings some level of justice to those women, although many complaints which surfaced back in 2020 have not necessarily been addressed. Back then Ubisoft responded to an outpouring of allegations that overwhelmed the company, saying that they would investigate those stories. When these and other allegations came up throughout Ubisoft’s worldwide studios, some workers reported that HR had been informed, yet nothing ever happened. In the end it took the force of France’s policing and legal system to do anything about it, following the arrests in 2023 of the above accused and two other workers. We’ve asked Ubisoft for their comment on the verdict.
