Teleperformance SE
Lead Plaintiff Deadline 06/20/2023
The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for Idaho on behalf of those who acquired Teleperformance SE (“Teleperformance” or the “Company”) (OTC: TLPFY) securities during the period from July 29, 2020 through November 9, 2022 (the “Class Period”). Investors have until June 20, 2023 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Teleperformance is a provider of outsourced omnichannel customer experience management services and related digital services, including third-party content moderation for social media platforms.
On August 4, 2022, Forbes published an article entitled “TikTok Moderators Are Being Trained Using Graphic Images of Child Sexual Abuse,” revealing that Teleperformance had subjected its workers to poor working conditions, including using real-life graphic images and videos of child sexual abuse to train its TikTok content moderators. On this news, the price of Teleperformance shares declined by $7.75 per share, or approximately 4.59%, from $168.69 per share to close at $160.94 on August 5, 2022.
On November 9, 2022, Time reported that Colombia’s Ministry of Labor “has launched an investigation into TikTok subcontractor Teleperformance, relating to alleged union-busting, traumatic working conditions, and low pay.” On this news, the price of Teleperformance shares declined by $24.55 per share, or approximately 18.55%, from $132.32 per share to close at $107.77 on November 10, 2022.
On March 22, 2023, Teleperformance announced that it was re-entering the business of “egregious” content moderation despite the Company’s prior “unanimous” decision to exit it. On this news, the price of Teleperformance shares declined by $2.94 per share, or approximately 2.48%, from $118.45 per share to close at $115.51 on March 24, 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose that: (i) Teleperformance’s growth in Core Services and Digital Integrated Business Services, which included content moderation services, had been achieved, in part, by requiring its content moderators to engage in inappropriate, traumatic, abusive, and potentially criminal activities; (ii) certain Teleperformance social content moderators had been trained with materials that included illicit images of child sexual exploitation; (iii) contraband images had been included in the Teleperformance Daily Required Reading reports for its content moderation staff; (iv) Teleperformance had failed to safeguard child sexual abuse material and had potentially violated strict rules governing the handling of such materials, including rules relating to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; (v) Teleperformance had failed to provide adequate training or emotional and psychological support to content moderators exposed to egregious materials, including those exposed to extreme graphic violence and sexual images; (vi) Teleperformance had imposed unreasonable time and performance targets that compounded the occupational trauma suffered by its content moderators; and (vii) Teleperformance had failed to implement or maintain the working conditions represented to investors, including by subjecting Teleperformance’s content moderation workers to widespread occupational trauma without psychological support, and with paltry pay, punitive salary deductions, extensive surveillance, and aggressive union-busting tactics.