Abercrombie & Fitch settled its class-action lawsuit over discriminatory hiring in 2004.
The litigation accused the retailer of favoring white male applicants and employees for customer-facing and management positions while disadvantaging African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and women. The dispute involved private class actions and a related Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case concerning hiring, promotion, job assignments, and the company’s restrictive image-based employment practices.
In 2004, Abercrombie agreed to a major settlement and consent-decree arrangement. Reports commonly describe the private class-action settlement as requiring $40 million in payments, while the EEOC described a broader $50 million resolution covering its case and two private class actions. The agreement also required changes to recruiting, promotion, training, complaint procedures, and marketing.
The year can be confused with 2005 because the federal court gave final approval to the consent decree in April 2005, and payments to class members followed. However, the settlement agreement was reached and announced in 2004, which is the canonical answer to this question.