A Vancouver law firm is launching a class action lawsuit against Tinder and Match Group Inc and Match Group L.L.C.
Tinder, the well-known and popular dating app allows users to choose premium or free usage.
It’s common-knowledge that the premium version improves users’ chances of a successful experience but Slater Vecchio LLP, the firm behind the lawsuit is alleging that Tinder manipulates algorithms and discriminates against people over a certain age.
The accusations are as follows.
Tinder allegedly hides prospective matches from non-paying users even when the non-paying user should be visible.
That they send non-paying users notifications of a match but do not show the matches.
That they secretly reduce the amount of matches which non-paying members receive if they swipe right too frequently.
Reducing the visibility of users who purchased but later cancelled premium services.
The lawsuit points out another allegedly discriminatory issue which is that users under the age of 30 are charged less than users who are older than 30.
Tinder Gold is available at $19.99 to those under 30 but costs $39.99 for those over 30.
This lawsuit isn’t the first that Tinder has been subject to of course. One of the most notable was settled out of court and didn’t involve a user but rather an executive or two.
Way back in 2012, Whitney Wolfe Herd was Vice President of Marketing at Tinder And she along with her co-founders, Justin Mateen and Sean Rad seemed set for enormous success.
Wolfe Herd was a huge part of Tinder’s early achievements and it was she who named the app which had originally been called the much less catchy “Matchbox”.
Things went all shades of wrong though when Wolfe Herd and Mateen, who had been dating, broke up.
In the wake of the breakup, Mateen subjected Wolfe Herd to threats and abuse via text and eventually, she left the company and took her grievances to a lawyer.
The case was settled out of court but the text messages went public and Mateen was heavily criticized for his sexist comments and for the threats made to Wolfe Herd.
Rad didn’t get off Scott free though. He was also criticized for his lack of support and for commenting that Wolfe Herd was “dramatic” in relation to the events.
Lying is never a good thing and even after losing his CEO position at Tinder, Rad went on to make some shockingly ill-thought out comments in the press on a variety of subjects.
Most notable of Rad’s blunders were his comments about a famous model apparently begging him for sex.
Maybe Sean Rad and Tinder still have something in common and should remember that honesty is the best policy.