Riot Games has agreed to pay a $10 million settlement to women in its workplace to resolve a gender discrimination lawsuit. This amount will be paid out to women who are either currently employed by the company or have worked there within the past five years, according to the Los Angeles Times which first reported on the results of the lawsuit. The legal proceedings have been going on since 2018 when the class action suit was first filed by employees who said Riot Games had violated California’s Equal Pay Act and other laws against gender discrimination in the workplace.
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The Los Angeles Times obtained court documents this week which revealed the details of the lawsuit settlement. According to those documents, the $10 million payout will be distributed to women who worked at Riot Games from November 2014 until the date when the settlement will be finalized. How much each employee gets will be determined by their full-time or contractor status as well as how long they’ve been with the company, and all employees who identify as a woman and worked there within the established timeframe will be eligible for payment.
Riot Games shared a statement with the Los Angeles Times about the settlement and called the development “another important step forward.”
“We’re pleased to have a proposed settlement to fully resolve the class action lawsuit,” Riot said. “The settlement is another important step forward, and demonstrates our commitment to living up to our values and to making Riot an inclusive environment for the industry’s best talent.”
It was reported earlier in the year that the class action suit against Riot had been settled, thought he details of the suit weren’t revealed at that time and other suits which were being settled within Riot’s controversial arbitration process were ongoing. These lawsuits followed an investigation by Kotaku where the site uncovered stories of alleged gender discrimination that cited rampant “bro culture” within Riot among other problems which led to the legal battles.
Riot Games previously addressed the class action suit in a post on the studio’s site where it said gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation “are not systemic issues at Riot.” The post referenced the suits levied against the company and now has an update about the resolved suit.
“We are pleased to share that we’ve finalized the proposed settlement agreement to resolve the class action case against Riot, and settlement paperwork has now been filed by plaintiffs’ counsel,” the updated post said. “While this is another important step in our journey, it is important to note that the settlement agreement is preliminary and is subject to the Court’s oversight and approval. We look forward to the final resolution of this case and continuing on our path forward.”
