The dating giant behind Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder will refund customers and simplify cancellations after a federal lawsuit.
DALLAS — Online dating giant Match Group will pay $14 million and change how it markets and manages subscriptions to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it used fake love interest ads, misleading guarantees and confusing cancellation processes to drive sales.
The Dallas-based company owns Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, Hinge and other popular online dating services.
The agreement, announced Tuesday, resolves a 2019 FTC lawsuit accusing Match of tricking hundreds of thousands of people into paid subscriptions through emails suggesting someone had expressed romantic interest. According to the agency, many of those messages came from accounts the company had already flagged as fraudulent.
The FTC also alleged Match misled consumers with a “six-month guarantee” that required users to meet multiple undisclosed conditions, locked paying subscribers out of their accounts after unsuccessful billing disputes and made it unnecessarily difficult to cancel.
“We believe that Match.com conned people into paying for subscriptions via messages the company knew were from scammers,” said then-director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Andrew Smith in 2019 when the lawsuit was filed. “Online dating services obviously shouldn’t be using romance scammers as a way to fatten their bottom line.”
The complaint claimed that in some months between 2013 and 2016, more than half of the instant messages and “favorites” users received came from fraudulent accounts. Between June 2016 and May 2018, nearly 500,000 subscriptions were purchased within 24 hours of such ads.
Under the settlement, Match is barred from misrepresenting guarantees or locking out subscribers who challenge charges, and it must disclose any terms tied to promotions. The company is also required to simplify the Match.com cancellation process.
The $14 million payment will be used to provide refunds to consumers.