Businesses Face Expanding Harassment Risks, Liabilities

Business owners, especially those in the health care and retail industries, face a growing number of “third-party” or customer-on-employee harassment lawsuits.

But such claims are just part of the mix of new and old potential liabilities businesses expose themselves to in the #MeToo era if they fail to police sexually or other abusive behavior in their workplaces, management-side lawyer Fiona Ong told Bloomberg Law.

Employers that have faced or are facing third-party harassment claims, or claims under other liability theories, range from well-known public-facing businesses like Costco, Sunoco Inc., and Wells Fargo Bank, to lesser-known, more exclusive ones, including ...