According to The Washington Post, Riot Games has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a gender-based discrimination class-action complaint. More precisely, $80 million will go to class-action suit participants, with the remaining $20 million funding the plaintiffs’ legal bills.
The complaint against Riot Games, which claimed a hostile environment for women, harassment, and possibly toxic aspects, stemmed in part from Kotaku’s 2018 investigation into the League of Legends creators’ problematic workplace.
Employees receive $80 million in the lawsuit
After several years of legal wrangling, the settlement was disclosed on Monday. Riot sought to settle the complaint about a total of $10 million two years ago, but the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing interfered. The DFEH contended in the complaint that Riot was not paying nearly enough, claiming that past and present employees might be owed up to $400 million.
The new agreement is 10 times the original, but just a fourth of the DFEH’s greatest forecasts. Riot has reached a partial settlement with California’s regulatory agencies as well as individual plaintiffs. $80 million will be made accessible to individuals who identify as women between 2014 and now, with over 2,000 qualified workers.
After the settlement, Riot Games will be monitored until 2024
In a statement issued today, the DFEH and the California Division of Labor accepted Riot Games’ settlement, citing 1,065 women employees and 1,300 women contractors over the time. In order to appropriately pay reparation, Riot must make various modifications in the future.
Riot Games will be required to do more than just pay out money as part of this settlement, with the DFEH notice acknowledging a number of other stipulations. Riot Games will be developed in order to generate an $18 million cash reserve to finance diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) activities.
Riot will also establish 40 new roles for prior temporary contractors across a range of departments in order to give more stability for the many employees working on Riot’s products. Finally, Riot will be required to recruit and pay a DFEH-approved third party to manage a number of corporate operations.