Riot Games gets final approval on gender discrimination settlement

Riot Games announced today that it received final approval from the courts for its settlement in the 2018 gender discrimination case. The games publisher originally announced the $100 million settlement in 2021, pending said final approval. The publisher will pay over 1,500 women who worked with the company between 2014 and 2021.

Under the terms of the settlement, Riot will pay out $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 settlement. This comes out to 1,548 women who will receive part of the settlement. The remaining $20 million goes to attorney fees and other expenses.

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

The follow-up to the lawsuit

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 California’s Civil Rights Department (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) will appoint the third party.

Paez added, “We know that trust is not a given – it’s earned – and it’s up to us to earn that trust each and every day through the experiences we create for Rioters and for players. We’ve worked hard over the past several years to create a culture at Riot where inclusivity is the norm and embracing diversity fuels creativity, and we’re committed to making sure that remains true moving forward.”

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

However, its 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 — stepped down as CEO of Riot Games.