Popular dating app start-up Tinder has confirmed that it has settled a sexual harassment case filed by one of its former employees and that one of the executives named in the lawsuit has resigned.
Whitney Wolfe, Tinder's former vice president of marketing, filed the case in June alleging Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Justin Mateen and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sean Rad of making several inappropriate remarks towards her and other employees.
Mateen resigned this week, the Los Angeles Times reported, but the CEO has stayed on.
Wolfe's lawyers said the start-up has settled the case out of court. InterActivCorp, the parent company of Tinder, confirmed the settlement to CNET but did not elaborate.
"Whitney's lawsuit against Tinder has been resolved (without admission of wrongdoing)," John Mullan, one of Wolfe's lawyers, told Buzzfeed.
"She is proud of her role as a co-founder of Tinder and of the role she played in the app's success. She is now pleased to be able to focus her energy, talents and idea on exciting new opportunities," Mullan continued.
In her lawsuit, Wolfe accused that Mateen and Rad pressured her to leave the company, in addition to insulting and threatening her.
She also mentioned in her filing the "sexist, racist and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails and text messages" sent to her by Mateen, with whom she had been in a romantic relationship.
The derogation by Mateen of Wolfe includes describing her as a "liberal lying desperate slut" and calling her a "whore" in the presence of the company's staff, according to the lawsuit. The former executive also claimed to have been forced to resign as co-founder because she was a woman.
Mateen had been indefinitely suspended by the company prior to Wolfe's filing of the lawsuit.
Attorney David Lowe, a partner at the law firm representing Wolfe, has declined to give details about the case. He, however, said that justice may be obtained in court cases beyond jury trial.
"This wasn't the first case and this won't be the last case with allegations of women being treated badly at technology companies," he added.
Among the tech companies that have been embroiled in controversy stemming from allegedly poor treatment of women are the code company GitHub and the photo messaging start-up Snapchat.