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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 Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.