$10M Settlement In Riot Games Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

Riot Games, a $1B-plus company owned by Chinese technology firm Tencent, has agreed to a $10 million payout to approximately 1000 women who worked at the company over a period of five years. Allegations in the gender discrimination lawsuit included that, in addition to violating the California Equal Pay Act, the company harbored a crude and corrosive “bro culture” that allowed such practices as “crotch-grabbing, phantom humping, and sending unsolicited and unwelcome pictures of male genitalia” to go unchecked, and that the company retaliated against female employees who spoke out. Forced arbitration proved to be a particularly volatile issue, precipitating an employee walkout last spring. Organizers are said to have been inspired by a walkout at Google over that issue in late 2018. Since then, Google agreed to end forced arbitration, Facebook said it would do so for sexual harassment cases, and California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law making mandatory arbitration for employees illegal starting in 2020. In addition to the cash payout, the Riot Games settlement commits the company to a number of promises, including measures to improve the culture, hiring a diversity officer, and reviewing all pay, promotion and hiring practices. The announced settlement is preliminary and needs to be approved by the court.