True

Last week TrueCar.com bought the True.com domain from the now bankrupt dating site True Beginnings. They paid $350,000 US in cash which was the asking price.

True has been heading down hill for years now and after some lawsuits in 2009 we stopped recommending the service.

For more on the story you can read Elliot's Blog.

Watch out, IAC - Markus Frind may be coming for your crown!

For a long time, IAC (InterActiveCorp) has been the undisputed ruler of online dating. IAC's businesses include Singlesnet.com. SinglePeopleMeet.com, OurTime.com, OkCupid.com, and, last but certainly not least, Match.com. Add it all together, plus IAC's numerous successful ventures outside of the dating industry, and you've got a seriously unstoppable force.

Markus Frind, CEO of Plenty Of Fish, recently attempted to score another piece of the kingdom for himself and push IAC an inch more off its throne. True Beginnings, the Texas-based owner of True.com, entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012 and is attempting to sell its assets. Frind was poised to gobble the site up, but Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has protested the sale.

Citing privacy concerns, Abbott objected in federal bankruptcy court to the sale of True.com's 43 million member database. "At a time when privacy is an issue of grave concern to so many," he said in a press release, "we are taking legal action to prevent an online dating service from selling more than 2 million Texans' personal information without their consent."

True Beginnings told the court they planned to notify users by email that their personal information would be sold, but Abbott contends that the company must obtain each customer's approval individually first. "The proper course is for True.com and its bankruptcy trustee to seek the customers' permission before selling their private information to a third party," he explained, "and that's exactly what our legal action asks the bankruptcy court to require before the case proceeds."

When signing up for True.com, users are told that their personal data - including phone numbers, passwords, financial billing info, and browsing history - cannot be transferred without their consent. However, Abbot notes, ambiguous language found in the site's privacy policy quietly adds that members' personal information held in the company's database would be treated as a transferable asset in the event the company was acquired by a third-party buyer.

Unsurprisingly, Frind is not pleased with the development. "Who in their right mind is going to buy a dating site with 43 million members if you are not allowed access to those members?" he wrote in a blog post. "This would be like buying twitter but you don't get access to twitters users unless they agree to the sale."

Under the current transfer process, True.com member data will be transferred automatically unless the customer takes direct steps to opt-out. Abbot is instead arguing that customers should opt-in and directly express approval for the transfer of their personal information. Whichever way this goes, it's bound to set a precedent for all future dating site sales.

Thomas Wong originally filed his petition against True.com for their auto billing and renewal practices of membership subscriptions on June 12, 2007. In March of 2009 a class action lawsuit was filed (see Story). As of September 22, 2009, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas approved the settlement. TrueBeginnings LLC has agreed to pay $1.5 million into a settlement fund over a period of a year in which former True.com subscribers are eligible to make a claim. True.com denies any allegations and wanted the case settled so they can move on and distance themselves from further bad press.

Members of the settlement class have until October 21, 2009, to submit claims forms to participate in the settlement. For more information on this, visit WONG V TRUEBEGINNINGS, LLC.

The Forbes website wrote an article called "The Top Online Meat Markets" which talks a bit about some current online dating statistics and lists the top ten dating sites according to unique visitors in the month of June from a tracking company called Nielsen (more famously known for tracking TV viewers). I wasn't really impressed with the title since they are referring to dating sites as meat markets. The term meat market is not meant as a compliment and it tells me the author is not very interested in the story and doesn't think much of the concept of online dating. He further expresses his point of view in this sentence:

Call it calculating, unromantic and maybe even a bit unnatural ...

For a media company whose authors are suppose to leave their opinions at the door unless the topic calls for it, I wonder how this piece got past the editor's desk.

Yesterday we wrote about the True.com $1.5 million lawsuit settlement (see Story). Dallas News did a piece as well, which uncovered a few additional facts. The lawsuit will cover customers who were charged incorrectly as far back as 2003. A lawyer of the plaintiff (Thomas Wong) stated that both True.com and themselves can identify former customers that are eligible for a refund. Those that were charged for an extra 1 month membership will receive $35 and those charge with over a month may receive $50. Over 150,000 ex-members of True are expected to be compensated.

Before any refunds are handed out, this settlement still must be approved by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey.

I was emailed some documents yesterday which involves the civil action case 3:07-cv-01244-N. This is the case where Thomas Wong and others, initiated a class action lawsuit against the dating site True.com about their auto billing and renewal practices of memberships. Thomas Wong originally filed his petition on June 12, 2007.

On Friday, in the Dallas, Texas federal court a $1.5 million settlement was filed. According to document 80-2:

The Settlement Agreement requires defendant TrueBeginnings, LLC ("True") to pay $1.5 million into a settlement fund that will be used to provide refunds to certain members of the Settlement Class, and to provide free 45-day subscriptions to certain other members of the Settlement Class (thereby providing several million dollars in additional benefit to the Settlement Class). In addition, the Settlement Agreement requires entry of an injunction prohibiting True from engaging in "auto-subscription" of ex-subscribers for at least four years...