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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former contestant on season two of the "Love Is Blind" reality series has reached a settlement "in principle" of his lawsuit against the companies behind the show, in which he alleged "unsafe and inhumane" conditions existed.
Attorneys for plaintiff Jeremy Hartwell and defendants streaming company Netflix Inc. and production firms Kinetic Content LLC and Delirium TV LLC filed joint court papers Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff notifying him of the provisional accord that occurred after mediation in March.
"Following mediation, the parties reached a settlement in principle and arrived at a settlement amount," according to the joint court papers, which did not reveal the amount. "The parties are currently negotiating certain key additional terms for a memorandum of understanding that we anticipate will be ready for signature within the next two weeks."
Riff scheduled a status conference for Wednesday.
"Love is Blind" debuted on Netflix in February 2020. Contestants are single men and women who seek love and get engaged before they actually meet. Hartwell alleged contestants were given unlimited amounts of alcohol without enough food and water to moderate their "inevitable" intoxication. He also maintained that he and the other cast members were underpaid and not given adequate rest periods between filming sessions.
"In doing so, defendants created and maintained unsafe and inhumane working conditions for the cast of the shows," the proposed class-action suit filed in June 2022 stated.
The companies also failed and continue to fail to compensate employees for all hours worked, including minimum wage and overtime hours, according to the suit. Hartwell further alleged that cast members worked up to 20 hours a day, seven days per week, for $1,000 per filming week, effectively paying them as little as $7.14 per hour.
In their court papers, attorneys for Netflix stated that Hartwell was upset that he was not chosen by any other participant to get engaged and that his allegations of wage/hour violations were without merit. The same lawyers also stated that Netflix did not take part in nor control the show's day-to-day production.
Kinetic Content and Delirium TV lawyers stated in their court papers that Hartwell was a participant and not an employee, that he took part in the show for six days and that the companies committed no wrongdoing.