according to media reports, in a settlement with the New York State Public Service Commission, XYZ..

[Leafka]

Hi,

the sentence below was written by me. I'm wondering if the part in bold looks natural inserted between '... in April 2016' and 'the main part of the sentence? Or maybe there are too many commas?

According to media reports in April 2016, in a settlement with the New York State Public Service Commission, XYZ agreed to pay USD 171 million to its customers to settle allegations of bribery and kickback schemes in the United States.

 

[Egmont]

The correct placement of the comma or commas depends on whether "April 2016" refers to when the media reports came out or when XYZ reached its settlement with the New York State PSC. If you wrote that sentence, you'll have to tell us which one of those you want to say.

 

[Leafka]

Hi Egmont, "April 2016" refers to when the media reports came out.

 

[Egmont]

In that case, the commas are in the right place. However, I think it would be even clearer if you changed the word order to read "According to April 2016 media reports, in a settlement with ..."