Tinder to End Aged-Based Pricing

Dating app Tinder said that it would be ending the controversial aged-based pricing structure for its premium service Tinder Plus by the end of the second quarter.

The news follows a recent UK study that found users were paying wildly different prices to access Tinder’s premium service, typically based on age, which raised questions about discriminatory pricing.

According to Buzzfeed, the Mozilla Foundation and Consumers International took up where the UK consumer watchdog Which? and Australian consumer advocacy organization Choice left off when they first pointed out the issue of price discrepancies on the app. The researchers at Mozilla and CI didn’t find statistically different prices based on race, gender or sexual orientation, but did find it among different age groups.

Researchers found that older users were charged more for Tinder Plus, but more than that, there were multiple price points. For example, 96 users across the Netherlands, New Zealand, US, Netherlands, South Korea, India, and Brazil were quoted 31 different prices for the same exact service, ranging from $4.45 to $25.95 per month. The differences in pricing were most notable for those 30 to 49-year-olds, who were charged 65.3 percent more than their younger counterparts.

Interestingly, pricing varied slightly within age categories based on gender and sexual orientation, with men being charged 6.5 percent more than women and straight users charged 10.6 percent more than LGBTQ users.

Tinder told Buzzfeed that it has “never considered sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or any other demographic characteristic when determining prices, and that the wide range of prices shown to users were likely the result of randomized tests.”

"This does not appear to be straightforward third-degree price discrimination whereby prices are set differently for different groups of consumers," the joint report said, according to PC Magazine. "But rather a complex process more akin to first-degree price discrimination (which seeks to identify the maximum price each individual consumer is willing and able to pay)."

In 2019, Tinder was forced to pay $23 million in a class action lawsuit brought forth by California-based users who were charged a higher rate than their younger counterparts. The company was also ordered to stop discriminatory pricing, at least in California, though last year the 9th Circuit court undid the settlement. 

Faced with the backlash from the consumer watchdog studies, Tinder has decided to halt its “individualized” pricing tactics.

The company said in a statement: “When we launched our first subscription we wanted to offer younger members a lower price point than the standard price, to make Tinder affordable for those in school or early in their careers. Age and market were the only factors taken into account to determine pricing. Members 28 years and younger were able to purchase discounted subscriptions, and people in India, for instance, would see different prices from members in the US. Sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or any other demographic characteristic have never informed, influenced or determined pricing at Tinder. And most importantly, it never will.”