Tinder dating – Photo by Good Faces Agency on Unsplash
(BRUSSELS) – U.S. online dating app Tinder committed Thursday to informing its customers that discounts they propose for their premium services are personalised by automated means, as required to do under EU law.
The case stems from a 2022 study that showed Tinder charged different prices from one person to the next though no clear pattern emerged as to which variables were determining the price.
Under EU rules, businesses must provide truthful information to consumers and refrain from misleading consumers to influence their choices. The Unfair commercial practices directive foresees that traders have to provide material information about prices in a clear and intelligible manner. The Consumer Rights Directive obliges businesses to inform consumers about personalised pricing based on automated means.
Tinder used automated means to, for example, identify consumers showing little or no interest in their premium services at a standard price to subsequently offer them personalised discounts. Hopwever, personalising discounts without explicitly informing consumers is seen as unfair as it hinders them from making an informed choice.
A network of national consumer authorities found that Tinder applied personalised prices without informing consumers, in violation of EU consumer law. Tinder also used, until April 2022, to offer lower prices for their premium services based on age without informing the users. This practice was stopped before the investigation started.
The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC), coordinated by the European Commission and led by the Swedish Consumer Agency and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets started the dialogue with Tinder in July 2022. Following this dialogue, Tinder committed to the following by mid-April 2024:
- not applying personalised pricing based on age without informing consumers clearly and upfront about it;
- informing consumers clearly that discounts on prices for premium services are personalised using automated means and;
- informing consumers why they are offered personalised discounts, for example because they were not willing to purchase Tinder’s premium services at a standard rate.
The consumer network will now actively monitor how Tinder implements the commitments on the app, and where necessary, enforce compliance, for example by imposing fines.
