Today, Clarkson Law Firm, the prominent California-based public interest firm, filed a federal class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Match Group, the parent company for popular online dating applications Hinge, Tinder, and The League. The lawsuit alleges Match Group specifically designs their apps with an addictive, game-like algorithm, capitalizing on singles’ inability to disengage and locking them into a perpetual pay-to-play loop to maximize and prioritize corporate profits over its customers’ relationship goals.
“Match Group brands their apps as ‘designed to be deleted,’ when really their algorithms are designed to foment addiction, transforming users into gamblers and paying customers,” said Ryan Clarkson, managing partner of Clarkson. “What Match Group promises is to help people form off-app relationships or find love or companionship, but what they actually deliver is a game, leading to addiction, and the loneliness, anxiety, and depression that come with it.”
Modeled off social media app algorithms, which have garnered significant national attention, keeping users scrolling and eroding their ability to self-regulate and disengage, Match Group has used similar features in their dating apps to “gamify” the online dating experience without adequately warning users of abuse, addiction, and compulsive use risks. Users that fall into the trap are converted into paying customers, as Match Group monopolizes their engagement and inflicts real economic harm.
“After years of conditioning and manipulation, Match Group has unveiled packages that cost obscene amounts – hundreds of dollars – that people are now ‘willing’ to pay to satisfy the addiction,” says Timothy K. Giordano, partner at Clarkson Law Firm. “These packages offer no more real chance at love, just more of the same addictive features that serve only to further entrench users in the app.”
Engagement-based feeds, push notifications, and endless “swipe” features are just some of the psychologically manipulative product features Match Group uses to induce compulsive platform use, while falsely assuring the public that its features are safe and will deliver results. “The company has used well-documented techniques originally used to keep gamblers addicted,” said Bahar Sodaify, partner at Clarkson Law Firm. “Every swipe is the pull of the lever, and once invested, users are unable to stop swiping.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of paying users on Hinge, Tinder, and The League, seeks two major remedies. First, it asks for immediate injunctive relief, requiring the removal of “Designed to be Deleted” language and inclusion of adequate warnings on the risks of addiction. Second, it seeks financial compensation for the purchase price of subscriptions, or the amount users overpaid for apps they didn’t know were actually designed to be addictive.
