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Activision Blizzard EEOC $18m settlement could be approved shortly

Activision Blizzard EEOC $18m settlement could be approved shortly

The settlement between publishing giant Activision Blizzard and US government body the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) could be approved in the next few days.

That's according to court documents – shared by Axios' Stephen Totilo – in which Judge Dale Fischer says she intends to have a final hearing on the case on Tuesday, March 29th. Unless either party requests it, there will be no written decision on the matter.

Furthermore, Fischer points out that neither party has responded to objections from California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). She does, however, note that "many of the statements in the Objections are simply inaccurate, based on speculation or otherwise address issues that the DFEH should not be concerned with."

In September 2021 it emerged that EEOC had filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard with a proposed settlement of $18 million on the table. This money would be put aside for those affected by gender discrimination and harassment at the publishing giant.

Many have objected to this settlement; the US' Communication Workers of America union have said that $18 million is not enough, a sentiment shared by a legal rep for a former Blizzard worker who says that it should be closer to $100 million.

Activision Blizzard is being sued for similar matters by DFEH, who have also tried to intervene in this lawsuit. Fischer stopped this in December of last year.

Activision Blizzard is of course being bought by Microsoft for $68.7 billion.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Forbes-Calvin is a freelance writer and photographer, mostly operating within the games industry. Over his career, he has written for the likes of MCV, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, The Observer, VGC and Esquire. That's on top of writing books for Dark Horse on RuneScape, Assassin's Creed, Dead Island 2 and more.