The Federal Trade Commission is suing Dallas-based Match Group for alleged deceptive advertising practices that prey on one the most pervasive conditions of modern society: loneliness.
The online dating giant, which owns Tinder, OKCupid and a collection of other matchmaking sites, is being sued in U.S. District Court by the regulatory agency for allegedly scamming hundreds of thousands of customers with messages advertising love interests that were never there to begin with.
The FTC accuses the company of using ads that advertised messages like, "He just emailed you! ... Could he be the one?" to trick consumers into purchasing a subscription to Match.com in order to see the fake messages sent to them.
Between June 2016 and May 2018, Match's own analysis found nearly half a million people bought subscriptions within 24 hours of receiving the fraudulent messages, according to the FTC's complaint.
Match responded to the suit, claiming the FTC had "misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data to make outrageous claims." It vowed to fight the agency's claims in court.
In order to dupe consumers, Match used "hard to understand" disclosures, according to the FTC. The dating site promised consumers a free six-month subscription if they didn't meet "the one" without disclosing numerous other requirements to receive the offer.
Once a customer had subscribed, the FTC alleges, Match also used unfair and deceptive billing and cancellation practices. The process was found to be so confusing that it "ultimately prevented many consumers from canceling their Match.com subscriptions."
Additionally, Match's practices violated the Restore Online Shopper's Confidence Act by failing to provide customers an easy method of putting a stop to recurring fees.
Match's own employees allegedly described the cancellation process as "hard to find, tedious, and confusing," the FTC said.
Match is no stranger to handling fraud on its dating platforms. Email communications between Match subscribers have a fraud rate of 1% or less, according to the company.
"We've developed industry-leading tools and AI that block 96% of bots and fake accounts from our site within a day and are relentless in our pursuit to rid our site of these malicious accounts," Match said in a statement Wednesday.
Match Group is based in Dallas and employs about 350 people at its headquarters. The company has recently begun an aggressive expansion into global markets while Tinder subscriptions have fueled revenue growth.
