Match, who owns dating platforms Tinder, Hinge, and The League, confronts a class action lawsuit alleging the company’s apps deliberately foster addictive usage to maximize profits rather than cultivating true connections.
As per Reuters, the lawsuit was initiated by six individuals from California, Florida, Georgia, and New York. The lawsuit accuses Match of employing a “predatory” model that allegedly manipulates users with algorithms that promote addictive engagement, coaxing them into spending significant sums annually.
The claimants seek over $5 million in damages, legal filings reveal. The complaint, lodged in a San Francisco federal court, criticizes Match for using “gamification” to addict users, making psychological rewards intentionally hard to attain.
This legal battle scrutinizes Match’s marketing claim, “designed to be deleted,” citing the apps’ addictive traits as contradictory.
Match counters, dismissing the lawsuit as baseless and affirming its commitment to real-world connections. The company promotes a “fast-fail” approach to drop ineffective features, with CEO Bernard Kim mentioning artificial intelligence’s role in improving user interactions on Tinder and Hinge.
The lawsuit aligns with similar actions against tech majors like Google and Facebook, accusing them of crafting addictive features.
The plaintiffs accuse Match of negligence and breaching consumer protection laws, seeking damages for app payments over the past four years. They also call for addiction risk warnings and remove the “designed to be deleted” slogan from Match’s advertising.
