A few years back, former Valnet freelancer Daniel Quintiliano filed a class action lawsuit against the media company accusing it of misclassifying content makers across its many websites as independent contractors rather than full-time employees in order to deny them certain levels of pay and benefits. Valnet denied the charges, but recently agreed to a $2 million settlement that will pay out to affected contractors.
As reported by Vertical Slice, Quintiliano accused Valnet of failing to properly compensate writers for things like overtime work and business expenses, and even failed to pay minimum wage in some cases. “By signing a settlement agreement and agreeing to ask the Court to enter a judgment ending the Action, Plaintiff and Valnet have negotiated a proposed settlement that is subject to the Court’s final approval. Both sides agree the proposed settlement is a compromise of disputed claims,” reads an announcement on the settlement website by administrator Atticus. “By agreeing to settle, Valnet does not admit any violations or concede the merit of any claims.”
The proposed $2 million will cover all all contractors involved in written and edited articles and video content between December 2019 and August 2026, provided they gave Valnet a California home address while they were classified as an independent contractor for one of its websites. The settlement has been granted preliminary approval and will get a final sign-off in February before the payments are given out.
Valnet began building its media empire in 2016 with the acquisition of Comic Book Resources. It later obtained notable brands like Collider and Polygon, for which it reportedly paid nearly $20 million. Polygon‘s masthead was gutted in the process and the bulk of what it publishes now comes from freelancers. There has been ongoing turnover at some of Valnet’s other websites as well, including TheGamer, which has recently seen several rounds of departures.