Snack Dating App Sued for Age Discrimination

Meet Muse Media, the parent company of dating app Snack, a video-based app designed to attract young Gen Z daters, has been sued by a thirty-seven-year-old man for age discrimination.

The plaintiff Geoffrey Taylor argued that he tried to sign up for the app but was denied due to the company’s policy of only allowing singles 35 and under on its app. He received a message referring him to try Tinder or Match, with a message that read: "100% of snack are under 35" and "looks like you're past our sell-by date."

According to Courthouse News, Taylor filed the lawsuit against the Canadian-based company in San Diego citing it violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating against customers based on their race, sex, religion and other protected categories. He’s seeking $4,000 in damages per violation and hopes to force Snack to loosen their rules on who can join. His lawsuit demands a jury trial and requests injunctive relief as well.

“Defendant built Snack upon a vision of connection; however, Defendant intentionally excluded all users who were above the age of 35 from partaking in the advantages of the privileges of this vision,” the class action lawsuit against Snack states, according to Top Class Actions website. 

Notably, Snack’s marketing tagline is “not your parents’ dating app,” and specifically states the age range of singles they allow on the app. The company has not issued a response or statement regarding the lawsuit.

Snack isn’t the first dating app to be accused of age discrimination. Several years ago, Tinder was sued in the state of California for unfair pricing practices for its premium services. Tinder’s pricing model went up for daters over 30, while younger daters paid the least. The company was forced to adjust its pricing but the ruling only applied to users in the state of California.

And more recently, Bumble was forced to pay $3 million in August of 2021 to resolve claims against the company for discrimination against male app users in California. The premise of Bumble’s platform is only allowing women to send the first message, flipping the script on traditional dating. However, the plaintiffs in this class action claimed the premise itself was discriminatory.

The lawsuit against Meet Muse Media looks to cover all persons in California who were denied access to the Snack video dating app because of their age.