Ninth Circuit Dismisses Tinder’s Proposed Settlement Deal For Age Bias Lawsuit

Tinder’s proposal to settle an age bias class action lawsuit using a mixture of cash, Super Likes and free subscriptions has been rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The total value of the deal would equate to approximately $24 million, but the Ninth Circuit concluded that this undervalued the strength of the case.

A lawsuit was first submitted in 2019 after it was found that users over the age of 30 in California were being charged higher subscription rates than their younger counterparts. Around 240,000 individuals were affected.

The dating app agreed to automatically distribute 50 Super Likes, priced at $1 apiece, to each user. Members could also file individual claims to receive an additional 25 Super Likes, $25 in cash or a one-month free subscription.

However, less than 0.745% of potential plaintiffs followed up to receive their additional compensation, meaning Tinder’s extra outlay was under $45,000.

Judge Rakoff also concluded that the automatically assigned Super Likes would only benefit those who were still active users of the app.

Tinder has agreed to stop charging older users a higher subscription price, although that only applies to daters in California and it still retains the right to offer discount rates to users under the age of 21.

In July, the Tinder founders’ lawsuit against Match Group and IAC was blocked from including separate sexual misconduct allegations against former CEO Greg Blatt. This was based on the plaintiffs alleged inability to come up with sufficient evidence.

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