Match Group Pays $2 Million to Settle Automatic Renewal Lawsuit

Match Group has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a civil lawsuit against Match.com. The case was filed at the end of 2020 and alleged premium subscriptions were automatically renewed without user consent.

It was also claimed that they were misled by the cancellation process, which was “unnecessarily complicated”.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office explained that companies must give full disclosure of all automatic renewal terms. Match Group did not admit wrongdoing, but has taken steps to update its procedures and correct the violations.

District Attorney George Gascón explained in a statement: “Consumers should be protected from practices that deceptively and unfairly force them to pay for something they don’t want.

“We want companies to thrive, but they should be mindful to not abuse technology tools to violate consumer protections.”

Match Group has also been ordered to comply with five additional terms, including clearly disclosing automatic renewal terms, getting “affirmative” consent for automatic renewals, and allowing users to easily cancel the service at any time.

Elsewhere, a separate lawsuit was officially filed against Match Group and Match.com in relation to claims about fake profiles.

Corwin Law, a consumer advocacy law firm acting on behalf of the plaintiffs, is alleging that Match.com would knowingly promote scam accounts to unsubscribed users and encourage them to pay in order to see the messages. The issue was first raised by the Federal Trade Commission in 2019.

Read more here.