Riot Games Obtains Final Approval of Gender Discrimination Settlement

Riot Games announced today that it has received final court approval for its settlement in the 2018 gender discrimination case. The game publisher originally announced the $100 million settlement in 2021, pending such final approval. The publisher will pay more than 1,500 women who worked with the company between 2014 and 2021.

Under the terms of the agreement, Riot will pay $80 million to all current and former full-time employees and temporary agency contractors who worked with Riot between November 2014 and the time of the agreement. This comes out to 1,548 women who will receive part of the settlement. The remaining $20 million goes to attorneys’ fees and other expenses.

Gaude Paez, Riot’s senior vice president of corporate affairs, said in a statement: “Today, the Court declared that it is granting final approval of Riot’s global class action settlement, closing our litigation with class action plaintiffs, the Department of California Civil Rights. , and the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. This has been a long road for everyone involved, and we are grateful to Rioters for their patience and support throughout this process.”

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Since the original lawsuit, Riot has committed to having its pay equity and internal reporting processes monitored by a third party for three years. Riot and the California Department of Civil Rights (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) will designate the third party.

Páez added: “We know that trust is not a given, it is earned, and it is up to us to earn that trust every day through the experiences we create for Rioters and for players. We’ve worked hard over the past few years to create a culture at Riot where inclusion is the norm and embracing diversity fuels creativity, and we’re committed to making sure it stays that way in the future.”

Since the deal was first announced, Riot has made more efforts to improve the representation of women in the company. according to their Annual Impact Report 2022women make up 27.5% of its workforce and 25.9% of leadership.

However, it is not clear how many senior employees accused of sexism and harassment were fired as a result of the lawsuit. Recently, Nicolo Laurent, who was implicated in the lawsuit, resigned as CEO of Riot Games.