Contestants on the upcoming MrBeast competition series have sued the popular YouTube star's production company and Amazon for sexual harassment, failure to pay minimum wage and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other allegations.
The plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing Amazon Alternative, MrB2024 and another production company, Off One's Base, of subjecting them to “unreasonable, unsafe and unlawful conditions of employment.” The complaint identifies several of the contestants as residents of Los Angeles County or California.
The plaintiffs were allegedly hired to appear on “Beast Games,” billed by Amazon as “the biggest reality competition series ever,” with 1,000 contestants and a $5 million prize. The show was set to premiere on the Seattle-based tech company’s streaming service, Prime Video.
“The defendant production companies and Amazon blatantly exploited the labor of… individuals who served as contestants” on the show, the 54-page complaint reads.
“Unfortunately, the supposedly magnanimous MrBeast was unwilling to use… supposedly unrestricted resources to provide fair wages, or even minimum legal working conditions, to the contestants whose labor constituted the core commercial value of Beast Games.”
A substantial amount of detail in the complaint is redacted in what the complaint describes as “a good faith effort to comply with Defendants’ overly broad confidentiality provisions… as well as to preserve the confidentiality and privacy interests of Plaintiffs who wish to avoid opprobrium.”
Representatives for Amazon and MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The suit alleges that the companies failed to compensate contestants with minimum wages or overtime pay, and denied them mandatory meal and rest breaks, among other provisions. The employers are also accused of “falsifying” the production’s labor costs in documents submitted to the Nevada Film Commission to qualify for the state’s tax credit program.
During the filming of the series, contestants were allegedly “kept under strict control and surveillance for days at a time” and were denied “all privacy and access to the outside world.” The complaint further alleges that contestants “were fed sporadically and sparsely” and “were not given adequate access to hygiene products or medical care.”
According to the suit, the contestants “individually and collectively suffered” from a “hostile work environment” steeped in “misogyny and sexism.” The companies allegedly did nothing to protect the contestants from sexual harassment.
The complaint further alleges that contestants were forced to deprive themselves of sleep and “participate in games that posed an unreasonable risk of physical and mental injury.”
The plaintiffs are demanding that the court order the companies to implement workplace reforms and employee training programs “to prevent future harassment,” and to pay punitive damages and all back wages owed to the contestants.
This is not the first time MrBeast has faced allegations of misconduct.
In August, the online content creator, whose YouTube channel has more than 315 million subscribers, admitted to using “inappropriate language” in previous videos after clips surfaced of him making racist comments and repeatedly uttering a homophobic slur.
A spokesperson for MrBeast, 26, said in a statement at the time that the YouTuber had “repeatedly apologized and learned that with increasing influence comes greater responsibility to be more aware and sensitive to the power of language.”
“After making some bad jokes and other mistakes when he was younger, as an adult he has focused on engaging with the MrBeast community to work together and make a positive impact around the world,” the rep added.
Times staff writers Meg James and Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
