United Kingdom

An investigation by a UK consumer rights group found that dating app Tinder is charging users over 30 as much as 48 percent more for its premium service Tinder Plus.

The advocacy group Which? said its findings show that Tinder may be discriminating against older users, a “potential breach of UK law,” according to The Daily Mail. The group has reported its findings to the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) and the Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) and asked them to investigate. The EHRC found the findings “concerning,” according to The Daily Mail.

Which? asked a sampling of 200 people to create real profiles on the dating app and to find out the pricing for the premium services like Tinder Plus, which unlocks certain popular features like unlimited likes and the ability to “rewind” or go back to check out a profile you already swiped left on.

Dating app Bumble said that it is actively campaigning to make cyberflashing illegal in England and Wales, as it continues to fight for policies to protect women on dating apps.

The term cyberflashing is used when someone (typically a woman) receives an unsolicited explicit photo via a messaging app or Airdrop. According to a study by YouGov in the UK, 41 percent of women aged 18 to 36 have been sent an “unsolicited photo of a man’s private parts.” This is illegal in many places, but not currently in England or Wales. 

In its own research, Bumble found that 48 percent of women ages 18 to 24 had received an unsolicited and explicit photo just in the last year, with 25 percent saying they felt violated because of it. A majority of almost 60 percent said they felt less trusting of others they interacted with online after the experience, and one quarter said that this occurrence has increased over the course of the pandemic, according to Mashable.

Match Group, owner of the popular dating apps Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, has sued dating app MuzMatch for Trademark infringement.

The online dating company said that MuzMatch, a British-based matchmaking app for Muslims, has copied their products and services, according to The Daily Mail. Match Group pointed to the use of the word “match” in the app’s metadata, which are keywords used by companies to make their products more prominent in Internet search findings. Match Group says that MuzMatch has included keywords like “match-muslim” and “uk-muslim-match,” which the company says are its registered marks that MuzMatch is co-opting for their own benefit.

MuzMatch rejects the allegations, saying that Match Group doesn’t have claim to the word “match.” The British company also has a U.S. copyright registration for the wordmark “Muzmatch” that has been in place since 2015, as well as in France and Germany.

The new year typically brings new dating trends, and according to Match, Zoomancing, icing out, and coupling season will be the breakout stars, at least in the UK.

Match Dating’s Expert Matchmaker Hayley Quinn has predicted that these trends will take off in the new year, after closely watching the pandemic alter dating habits at an unprecedented level.

“Zoomancing,” or virtual dating, isn’t going away anytime soon, she told the U.K.’s Mirror. In fact, Match reported that 18 percent of its users continue to date virtually, even when they could have met in person. This is in large part due to Covid infection surges throughout the last two years and the emergence of new variants that have continued to cause more concern, even as more people get vaccinated. Lockdowns might not be required anymore, but singles remain cautious with people they are just getting to know. Plus, dating virtually offers people a chance to get to know each other before meeting in real life.

Match Group announced that the company will go carbon neutral by March of 2022 thanks to its purchase of offsets to carbon emissions, leading the way for dating apps to address issues of climate change.

The company announced the move in a press release, noting that it commits to offsetting its carbon footprint going forward, though the offset purchase made lasts only two years. Match Group invested in Hyundai Green Power Corporation, which captures and recycles waste gases to generate electricity through its Steel Waste Energy Cogeneration Project. (The site’s steel mill reuses waste gases and what remains is used by the project’s power plant.)  

When that energy is repurposed, it supplies power to the local grid in Dangjin, South Korea, instead of that grid relying on fossil fuels. This means a reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Match Group. 

Tinder just debuted a new ad campaign in time for the holidays, one of the busiest times of the year for dating app users. The company hired creative agency Mischief@NoFixedAddress to appeal to young Gen Z daters, its target audience.

According to The Drum, the new ad tagline is “you’re not for everyone,” and highlights in a funny way some unusual passions of singles that not everyone will find endearing. The ad is meant to assure its users that no matter how unique their interests are, there will always be someone who’s into the same things.

The first ad features a woman doing astral projection from her living room floor surrounded by candles who loses her zen focus when a roommate wanders in.