Activision Blizzard is Settling its Sexual Harassment Lawsuit with an $18 Million Payment

After almost a year of lawsuits by various government organizations, the federal court has approved the settlement amount to be paid by Activision in the EEOC (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) case, as confirmed by Activision itself. The settlement amount is said to be valued at around $18 million.

Now, any Activision Blizzard employee (both current and former) can submit their cases on toxic work culture or sexual discrimination dating from September 1, 2016, following which they will be liable for proper compensation.

In a recent press release, ABK CEO Bobby Kotick said, “Our goal is to make Activision Blizzard a model for the industry, and we will continue to focus on eliminating harassment and discrimination from our workplace. The court’s approval of this settlement is an important step in ensuring that our employees have mechanisms for recourse if they experienced any form of harassment or retaliation.”

Regulatory bodies like DFEH and Communications Workers of America have criticized this settlement on the grounds of the amount being inadequate, since $18 million would only be able to provide compensation to 60 employees. To put that into context, Riot Games paid around $100 million in settlement over its sexual discrimination controversies, which provided for around 1,000 female employees and another 1,000 contract workers.

Additionally, the ABK applicants who file their cases through the EEOC settlement won’t be able to apply for the same when the DFEH case reaches its inevitable conclusion sometime in February next year, as reported in a recent The Washington Post report. There’s also the looming fear that EEOC’s agreed amount will lower the settlement value of DFEH’s case as well.

Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.