Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Company to Pay $350,000 in EEOC Age Discrimination and Retaliation Case

DENVER – Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Company, also known as ASWO, a global recreational gear company with employees throughout the United States, will pay $350,000 and provide other relief to settle a lawsuit alleging unlawful retaliation under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a Boulder, Colorado-based employee complained multiple times to human resources and management about age discrimination during an organizational restructuring, expressing his belief that the company placed younger, less experienced employees in newly created leadership roles without posting the positions or giving older, more experienced employees the opportunity to apply.

When the employee complained that these actions constituted age discrimination, his regional manager and the company’s human resources representative warned him not to escalate his complaint further. ASWO never investigated the employee’s complaints; instead, when the employee elevated his complaint to the company’s global vice president, ASWO terminated him less than six weeks later, according to the suit.

“The EEOC is committed to holding employers accountable for retaliation and to safeguarding employees who exercise their rights under federal anti-discrimination laws,” said Mary Jo O’Neill, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office. “Employers must not be permitted to engage in any conduct that would punish or otherwise dissuade employees from speaking up to oppose age discrimination.”

The company’s alleged conduct violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which prohibits retaliation for complaining about age discrimination. The EEOC filed suit in October 2024 (EEOC v. Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Company, Case No. 1:24-cv-02940, later consolidated with Case No. 1:24-cv-02659) in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

The case was resolved by a two-year consent decree, which includes monetary relief totaling $350,000 for the employee, as well as targeted equitable relief, including EEO training for managers and employees, EEO policy review, and, if necessary, revision, notice posting, injunctive relief and ongoing reporting requirements.

For more information on age discrimination please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The EEOC was represented in-house by Carey DeGenaro, Laurie Jaeckel, and Jeff Lee.

The EEOC’s Denver Field Office is one of three offices in the EEOC Phoenix District Office, which has jurisdiction over Arizona, Colorado, parts of New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.