Legal

Regulators in The Netherlands have just rejected another rules revision from Apple regarding how it will manage third-party payment platforms for dating apps in its app store.

According to Apple Insider, The Authority for Consumers and Markets said that the changes Apple made in its latest rules submission in March were improved but still insufficient. In that revision, Apple had allowed dating apps to use third-party payment systems, but developers had to choose between either the third-party payment system or Apple’s system, not both. Apple also required that the apps would have to notify users that they would be using a system that Apple didn’t control. 

What continues to be a sticking point for the tech giant as well is the commission it charges all developers who place apps in the app store. Apple said that even if dating apps use a third-party payment system, they would still charge developers a 27 percent commission to be able to operate in the app store. (Currently, Apple charges a 30 percent commission to developers and all in-app payments must go through its app store.)

Many dating app users have complained about getting unsolicited nude photos, and are now demanding digital consent before a communicating with a match.

Dating apps have been struggling with what to do about this issue for a while, but since the pandemic attracted many new users to dating apps, the problem has grown. According to The New York Post, A World Wide Web Foundation survey found that 52 percent of young women and girls said they had experienced online abuse, including threatening messages, sexual harassment and being sent lewd photos without consent. A whopping majority of 87 percent said they believe the issue is only getting worse. 

Dating app Bumble launched a feature called Private Detector to counteract this problem. Private Detector works with AI to detect when a nude photo is sent and blurs the picture before the recipient can see it, allowing them to block and report the user without having to see it first.

Match Group has won the lawsuit it brought against dating app Muzmatch for trademark infringement violation.

According to The Guardian, the UK intellectual property and enterprise court ruled in favor of Match, which owns popular apps like Tinder and Hinge. Muzmatch, a niche dating app for Muslim singles, could now be forced to change its name or pay damages, according to The New York Times.

Match Group claimed in the lawsuit that consumers might think Muzmatch was a “sub-brand” of theirs targeting Muslim daters because of its name. Deputy high court judge Nicholas Caddick QC agreed, stating that using “match” in its name “would have led some consumers to assume that the goods and services offered by Muzmatch were somehow connected with or derived from Match,” according to The Guardian.

Dating app Bumble has been urging states to pass bills similar to the one it initiated in Texas, which makes it illegal for people to send unsolicited nude photos electronically. In mid-April, Virginia passed such a bill into law.

According to the new law, any adult sending an unsolicited “intimate image” electronically to another adult could be fined up to $500. The law defines intimate image as a “photo, film, video, recording, digital picture or other visual reproduction of a person 18 years of age or older who is in a state of undress so as to expose the human male or female genitals.”  

USA Today spoke with Bumble about how company's head of public policy for the Americas, Payton Iheme, reached out to Virginia Senator Jennifer McClellan for help with the legislation, since the company had success a few years ago passing a similar bill in Texas. The Virginia Senate had voted down another lewd photos bill two years before that carried criminal penalties, but since the new bill introduced civil penalties only, lawmakers felt more comfortable passing it into law.

Match Group triumphed over federal regulators in a lawsuit that would have had them pay $844 million for failing to remove fake messages and profiles from its Match dating app.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade delivered the ruling and cited the Communications Decency Act, deeming Match a publisher, which means that since the company isn’t creating the profiles but instead just publishing them, they are ultimately protected from blame.  

In 2019, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Match for fraud, saying that it exposed customers to increased risk of being scammed and engaged in other deceptive and unfair practices, including tricking hundreds of thousands of consumers into buying subscriptions. According to Tech Crunch, the agency claimed Match knowingly profited from these practices, and it made deceiving users a core part of its business practices. It also said that 25 to 30 percent of registrations on Match came from scammers. 

A new Connecticut bill aiming to improve safety on dating apps just advanced from the judiciary committee to the Senate for a vote. If passed, it could set a precedent for the rest of the country.

The legislation would force online dating sites to verify the identity of users and provide that information if presented with a warrant, subpoena or court order, according to CT Insider. It would also establish new education and training programs to combat online abuse and designates “grooming” (befriending minors to abuse them) as a separate crime. The judiciary committee passed the bill at the end of March.

While there is large support for the bill from legislators and violence prevention advocates, there is some hesitation among lawmakers, including Republican state senator Craig Fishbein. He questioned how dating services would be able to verify someone’s identity or stop them from transferring an account to someone else.