US court determines Twitter violated contract by not paying annual performance bonuses
On Friday, a federal court in the United States declared that Twitter, now known as X, breached contracts by not fulfilling its verbal commitment to provide annual performance bonuses to its employees.
Former employer Mark Schobinger filed a breach of contract lawsuit in June.
According to the lawsuit, Twitter had promised employees a performance bonus for 2022 if they stayed with the company until the last possible payment date, which was the first quarter of this year.
The court rejected Twitter’s attempts to have the case dismissed, ruling that Schobinger’s breach of contract claim under California law was valid.
“Schobinger has plausibly stated a breach of contract claim under California law. He alleges that Twitter orally promised to pay each employee a portion of the planned bonus,” wrote U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.
“And by refusing to pay Schobinger the promised bonus, Twitter breached the contract,” the judge said.
X can still appeal the court’s decision.
The social network, now owned by Elon Musk, is currently facing several headwinds, including an EU investigation under a law aimed at combating disinformation and hate speech, criticism of the platform’s response to the recent Dublin riots, and a push from big-name advertisers.
The company is now worth less than half the $44 billion he paid for it in October 2022, according to internal documents sent to staff, reported by tech publication The Verge.
