Riot Games Reaches Settlement Over Class Action Lawsuit

A class action lawsuit levied against Riot Games which alleged incidents of sexual harassment and gender discrimination within the company has been settled, the company announced on Friday. The League of Legends creator's post about the settlement said the claims made against the company were taken "very seriously" and that an agreement had been met with the plaintiffs. Details of the settlement were not provided in the announcement, though a reaffirmed commitment to transparency insinuated we'll know more about the situation in the future.

Riot Games said that after doing a "deep dive" into its company culture and its systems, the company could "confidently state that gender discrimination (in pay or promotion), sexual harassment, and retaliation are not systemic issues at Riot." Even with that announcement Riot said it wanted to show current Rioters it was committed to rebuilding trust and making good on the list of goals and values outlined earlier in the investigations.

"We made a commitment to Rioters that we would be willing to take the steps necessary to build trust and to demonstrate that we're serious about Riot evolving into an excellent place to work for all Rioters," Riot Games said. "Under these circumstances, we've had to look critically at our litigation approach to the class action lawsuit. While we believed that we had a strong position to litigate, we realized that in the long run, doing what is best for both Riot and Rioters was our ideal outcome. Therefore, rather than entrench ourselves and continue to litigate, we chose to pivot and try to take an approach that we believe best demonstrates our commitment to owning our past, and to healing the company so that we can move forward together."

A joint statement from the Riot Games and the counsel representing the plaintiff saw the plaintiff's attorney calling the cooperation between the two parties "a very strong settlement agreement that provides meaningful and fair value to class members for their experiences at Riot Games." A group of Rioters against the forced arbitration policies at Riot also shared a statement.

TL;DR: Class action lawsuit against Riot has been settled (other suits that went to arbitration are still pending). We believe this is a huge victory for women in games. Full text of statement from the walkout organizers here: pic.twitter.com/H9qhse35V8

— Rioters Against Forced Arbitration (@RiotersAFA) August 23, 2019

The class action lawsuit Riot Games faced was connected to the investigations into the company's culture which took place last year and prompted a response detailing plans for improvement. A new list of company values followed, and several months later, Riot Games employees held a walkout to protest unfair treatment of the workers which included forced arbitration.