The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has brought a lawsuit against dating app eHarmony, alleging the company misled consumers through false advertising. It also alleges that the company deceived its customers about pricing and renewing their subscriptions.

According to The Guardian, the lawsuit filed in Australian federal court alleges the company of “entrapping singles” by showing them only blurred photos of their matches and not allowing them to send messages without paying for a subscription. The lawsuit also accuses the company of luring customers to sign up by falsely advertising “free dating” on the platform, as well as short-term membership offers and early cancellation opportunities.

In reality, users opting for the “free service” completed an 80-question profile survey before they had access to look at potential matches. However, when users completed the questions, they were served blurry profile photos of other members, and were only able to send one message as a reply to a premium member. If they wanted to continue messaging, they were required to pay for the service.

Young jobseekers in China are increasingly turning to Tinder to network and look for a job, rather than to find a date.

According to Sixth Tone, young Chinese college graduates are gravitating to the platform in the midst of a record-setting 20 percent unemployment rate across the country. Tinder is not one of the more popular dating apps in China, but it is known, mostly for the type of people who are on it. Namely, employees of large companies that hold some of the most coveted jobs in the country.

Tinder is also not officially accessible in China, though residents have found a way to join. In fact, the difficulty associated with accessing the platform is one of the reasons people are turning to it – because they have access to people they wouldn’t normally encounter in everyday life. In this region, Tinder skews toward people who have studied overseas and now work for international companies.

Image: Tinder

Tinder is reaching out to the coveted Gen Z market by partnering with Saweetie to welcome eighteen-year-olds to college, and to encourage them to meet people using the app.

Swipe Off is the nationwide challenge the dating app has launched, where it will award the college or university with the most swipe activity with a free concert headlined by the popular rapper, along with a surprise special guest.

The Swipe Off challenge is only open to select campuses participating in Tinder U, which is a feature college students can select that lets them connect with others at their school. According to the company’s announcement on the blog, the school that accumulates the most likes (or nopes) on Tinder by October 6th will win the free concert with Saweetie.

Men using filters to enhance their dating app photos tend to attract more matches, but they also come across as less trustworthy to women.

According to a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior, women were shown 10 profile photos of single men, both filtered and unfiltered versions. Most women preferred the more attractive, filtered versions of the men, but these same women also said they didn’t seem as trustworthy as the men in the untouched ones.

Researchers also found that ultimately while the women found altered profiles less trustworthy, they were in fact more interested in dating the men behind them. According to PsyPost.org, this conclusion “ultimately suggests that the allure of heightened physical attractiveness outweighs the reservations arising from diminished trustworthiness.”

Image: Hinge

Dating app Hinge wants people to connect with their dates instead of scrolling their phones, and so it has launched a new guide to help curb dating distraction.

According to Mashable, a whopping 78 percent of Hinge users say that they believe their date isn’t interested in them if they look at their phones during the date (even though a lot of dating app users admit to doing this themselves). Seventy-five percent say they are more hesitant to open up to a date when they are on their phone.

Hinge’s new Distraction Free Dating Guide was created by Logan Ury, Hinge’s director of relationship science, and Moe Ari Brown, the company’s love and connection expert, in collaboration with the Foundation for Social Connection.

Millennials and Gen Z singles are spending more money on dating, with some going into “dating debt,” where they are spending money on grooming, dinners out, gifts, and other related romantic expenses.

According to a new study by Lending Tree, 22 percent of millennials and 19 percent of Gen Z singles have begun to incur “dating debt.”

And another study by Credit Karma found that among daters aged 18-34, 29 percent said they’ve gone into debt for dating, including 21 percent who’ve said that debt exceeded $500 in one year. Twenty-nine percent admitted they had overspent in an attempt to impress their dates, while 19 percent said they did it to “seek intimacy.”