Match Group, the owner of major dating apps including Tinder, Match, OkCupid, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish, has agreed to a US$14 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve allegations of misleading billing and subscription practices.
The FTC’s complaint, originally filed in 2019, claimed Match Group encouraged users to purchase subscriptions by sending notifications about messages from accounts the company had already flagged as likely fraudulent. The agency also accused Match Group of locking users out of accounts after they disputed charges, retaining their payments without providing access, and creating obstacles for users trying to cancel subscriptions.
Under the terms of the settlement, Match Group will be required to make its six-month guarantee clearer, stop penalizing users who dispute charges, and simplify the subscription cancellation process. The $14 million payment will be used to compensate affected customers.
“Deceptive subscription practices harm consumers and erode trust,” the FTC said in announcing the resolution. The agency has increasingly targeted subscription-based digital services for so-called “dark pattern” tactics that make it difficult for users to understand terms or exit paid plans.
While smaller than recent high-profile penalties against tech giants – such as Facebook’s $5 billion privacy settlement in 2019 – the Match Group case signals the FTC’s continued focus on consumer protection in subscription-driven platforms. This is part of the larger ongoing scrutiny over app monetization as a whole, something that has been a topic of concern for many people ever since apps became one of the dominant tech money-makers.
