The plaintiff leading a collective action against Sony Interactive Entertainment and alleging pervasive gender discrimination will have to replead her claims after Sony secured their dismissal last week. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ruled the majority of the 13 discrimination and harassment-related causes of action had to be dismissed “because the allegations are mostly conclusory.”

The plaintiff’s case, filed last November, is about the difficulties she faced as a female Sony employee. Reportedly, she was harassed, denied promotion, demoted, and terminated after working for the company from 2015 to 2021 because of her gender, implicit company bias, and because she spoke up about her concerns.

The complaint includes class causes of action for pay inequality, failure to promote, failure to investigate discrimination, among others and individual causes of action for state-law wrongful termination, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, discrimination and harassment in the form of wrongful termination.

Sony moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s first amended complaint on grounds that the ex-employee’s claims singled out unactionable run-of-the-mill personnel activity. The video game and video game console maker also moved to strike under Rule 12(f) on the basis that the allegations were too individualized to establish that a class or collective action was procedurally proper.

In last week’s opinion, Judge Beeler reviewed each claim or grouping of claim,...

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