Activision Blizzard settles sexual harassment lawsuit for £42million

Activision Blizzard has settled its ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit with The California Civil Rights Department for $54million (£42million).

The lawsuit was filed in June 2021, following a two-year investigation. The suit claimed that women at Activision Blizzard were paid less than men in the same role and promoted more slowly. A “frat boy workplace culture” reportedly led to women being “subject to numerous sexual comments and advances, groping and unwanted physical touching, and other forms of harassment.”

Female employees allegedly also had to deal with “constant sexual harassment, including groping, comments, and advances” in the workplace, though Activision denied the claims and said the suit featured “distorted or false” descriptions.

As part of the settlement, Gilbert Casellas – a former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – reportedly conducted a review of Activision and found “there was no widespread harassment or recurring pattern or practice of gender harassment” at the company (via New York Times).

However, as well as paying the state to drop the suit, Activision Blizzard has set aside up to $47million (£37million) to pay female employees or contract workers at the company from 2015 to 2020, who said they had received inequitable pay. Activision has also agreed to hire an outside consultant to look into compensation, promotion policies and training materials.

“We are committed to ensuring fair compensation and promotion policies and practices for all our employees, and we will continue our efforts regarding inclusion of qualified candidates from underrepresented communities in outreach, recruitment, and retention,” said Activision Blizzard in a statement to Kotaku.

Last March, Blizzard paid $18million (£14million) to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and in February, the company paid a $35million (£27.6million) fine after Activision broke whistleblower protections and failed to disclose information to investors.

It comes after Microsoft’s $68.7billion (£54.3billion) takeover deal was finally approved in October, after launching at the start of 2022.

In other news, Twitch has been forced to change new, relaxed guidelines over nude art on the streaming platform due to concerns about AI.