Tinder, Hinge Lawsuit Claims Dating Apps Are Intentionally Designed to Be Addictive

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges MatchGroup has purposely designed the Tinder, Hinge and The League dating apps to be addictive, effectively locking users into a “perpetual pay-to-play loop” that prioritizes profits over their relationship goals. 

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The 59-page dating app lawsuit alleges MatchGroup has represented to Tinder, Hinge and The League users that the ostensibly “designed-to-be-deleted” dating apps are effective tools for establishing off-app relationships while “secretly doing everything in its power to capture and sustain paying subscribers and keep them on-app.” Per the case, MatchGroup utilizes “game-like” designs and manipulative features to hook users while failing to disclose that its dating apps are intentionally designed to be addictive. 

“The undisclosed defective design is intended to erode users’ ability to disengage from the Platforms and turn users into addicts who will purchase ever-more expensive subscriptions to unlock unlimited and other ‘special’ features which are not designed to deliver on Match’s marketing promises, but instead to further addict and forever entrench users in the app,” the proposed class action lawsuit, filed on February 14 in California, alleges, calling MatchGroup’s overall business model “predatory.” 

According to the complaint, MatchGroup has guaranteed its own market success by monopolizing users’ attention as a means to drive pricey subscriptions and continual use of its dating apps. The case says MatchGroup “employs recognized dopamine-manipulating product features” to “gamify” Tinder, Hinge and The League to “transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards” the defendant makes intentionally elusive. 

To ensure users buy subscriptions, MatchGroup “manipulates” them by inserting into its apps “artificial usage bottlenecks” that restrict non-paying customers and employing a secret algorithm “designed to encourage and reward compulsive use,” the filing adds. At the same time, MatchGroup misrepresents how it designs the dating apps and “makes false promises to consumers” to keep down their guard against compulsive app use while “pressuring them” into pouring more time and money into the dating apps, the lawsuit charges. 

More broadly, MatchGroup continues to distribute Tinder, Hinge and The League without disclosing their purposely addictive nature and attendant health risks, the suit says.

The lawsuit looks to cover all United States residents who, within the last four years, bought one or more subscriptions to Tinder, Hinge or The League. 

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