Some say love is only for the young, and Tinder tends to agree.
The well-known dating app has been ordered by a court to pay back $17.25 million to subscribers who paid a higher amount because they were over 29. As with many apps using the ‘freemium’ model, the basic services were free but in order to get access to some features a person has to pay. The problem was that not everyone was paying the same price. In order to get more swipes and ability to swipe in other cities, “Tinder Plus” subscribers paid $9.99 for those under 29 and double(!) that – $19.99 – if you are unfortunate enough to be over 29.
A court ruled that this constituted discrimination and has ordered the company to compensate their subscribers accordingly.
Apparently the point was to actively discourage older people from joining the platform, keeping it all to the youngin’s, but with the swipe system it’s not like anyone was being forced to chat with someone they didn’t want to anyway.
Beyond the question of why Tinder would want to set the policy in the first place, it’s hard to figure out how they didn’t see this coming. It’s a pretty clear-cut example of discrimination: charging people different amounts for the same service because of being part of a certain demographic.
But calm down all you 20-something Tinder users. Do you really expect the app to suddenly be inundated with 60-year-olds on the prowl?
