Activision Blizzard to pay over $54 million to settle workplace discrimination lawsuit

Following allegations of workplace discrimination at Activision Blizzard, the gaming giant has agreed to pay just under $55 million. The settlement with the California Civil Rights Department is still subject to court approval.

The terms of the settlement make “women who worked for the company between Oct. 12, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2020, either as hires or independent contractors” eligible for compensation. Under the agreement, the company will also “take additional steps to help ensure fair pay and promotion practices also agrees to ensure fair pay and promotion practices.”

With the settlement comes an “amended complaint” regarding the sexual assault allegations Activision Blizzard faced. As the Associated Press reports, the settlement agreement states that no court or independent investigation has substantiated allegations “of systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard, nor claims that the company’s board of directors and CEO acted improperly or ignored or tolerated a culture of harassment, retaliation or discrimination.”

Activision Blizzard also previously agreed to pay a $35 million settlement earlier this year to the SEC.

A long road to here

The discrimination lawsuit was from California’s civil rights agency, representing women from Activision Blizzard. The first lawsuit was brought forward in 2021, and it contained several allegations against the video game company. Many of the allegations were centered on discrimination:

• Women were receiving lower starting pay
• Women were promoted more slowly and terminated faster than their male counterparts

There were also allegations of a frat-boy culture where women routinely faced sexual harassment. These included description of “cube crawls” and other reports of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard.

Though the allegations brought controversy to the Call of Duty publisher, it was still acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion. Shortly after the acquisition was finalized, CEO Bobby Kotick announced he would be stepping down after 32 years at the company.