At the end of 2021, we reported on Riot Games being subjected to a $100M settlement thanks to a sexual discrimination lawsuit. After over a year of waiting, the League of Legends developer will finally have to start paying out victims.
In a story from GamesIndustry.biz, we learned that the compensation amounts would fluctuate between $2,500 to $40,000 per female employee. According to Axios, the dollar amount will vary depending on the worker’s “employment status and tenure, to anyone who didn’t choose to opt out.” Surprisingly, out of the more than 1,500 women connected to the class action suit, seven decided not to take the payments.
The class action lawsuit first started rolling in 2018. Kotaku published the details of the developing legal battle back then. In the filing, the suit stated, “Like many of Riot Games’ female employees, Plaintiffs have been denied equal pay and found their careers stifled because they are women. Moreover, Plaintiffs have also seen their working conditions negatively impacted because of the ongoing sexual harassment, misconduct, and bias which predominate the sexually-hostile working environment of Riot Games.”
While the company as a whole did not come out of the allegations unscathed, Riot Games CEO Nicolas Laurent did. Accusations made against him by former executive assistant Sharon O’Donnell did not meet the evidentiary requirements of the company’s board. Therefore, no sanctions were put against Laurent, as reported by The Gamer.
This wasn’t one of those cases where the specter of guilt lingered over the investigative committee’s head. Nope. The board said, “Most cases of this nature are not black and white; they fall into the gray. However, this was not one of those cases. In this case, we were simply unable to find any evidence that would justify a sanction of any kind against Laurent.”
This does not mean Riot Games’ CEO is in the free and clear, as the board did mention the investigation would be reopened if new evidence came to light. However, since this was concluded in March 2021, we’ll unlikely see anything change.
Riot Games isn’t the only company in the business being taken to task in the legal system. Blizzard is still dealing with lawsuits, one specifically targeting the company’s alleged “alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment.”
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