Highlights:
- The FTC filed a proposed consent order with an online dating service company to resolve alleged unlawful practices related to advertising and subscriptions.
- This and other recent FTC actions show that the Commission continues to have an active enforcement agenda under the current Administration.
- Like the FTC's "click to cancel" rule that was vacated by the Eighth Circuit in July, the settlement requires the dating service to provide "simple" mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges.
Case Summary:
On August 12, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission announced that a large online dating company (the "Company") agreed to stop alleged unlawful practices related to advertising, cancellation, and billing. In September 2019, the FTC filed a complaint against the Company alleging that it deceptively misrepresented free six-month subscriptions to consumers by failing to adequately disclose the conditions to qualify for the free subscription. As a result of this promotion, the FTC alleged that the Company induced approximately 2.5 million consumers to sign up for subscriptions and provided approximately 30,000 free subscriptions to those consumers.
The FTC also claimed that the Company suspended accounts of paying users who filed billing disputes against the Company with the consumer's financial institutions or law enforcement. The Company allegedly froze the accounts of subscription holders but did not refund the consumer for the subscription they had paid for. The Company also purportedly made it difficult to cancel subscriptions, in violation of the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act.
Finally, the FTC alleged that the Company used notifications from accounts it knew or should have known to be fraudulent to induce consumers to sign up for the online dating service. The FTC claimed that sending notifications to consumers about fraudulent messages resulted in just under 500,000 consumer subscriptions.
Settlement Terms:
The Company agreed, without admitting or denying liability, to pay $14 million in redress and to:
- clearly and conspicuously disclose the terms of its "six-month guarantee," as well as any other material restrictions, limitations, or conditions relating to guarantees;
- not misrepresent any material restrictions, limitations, or conditions relating to guarantees;
- refrain from retaliating, threatening to take adverse action, or taking any adverse action against consumers for filing billing disputes and denying consumers who file billing disputes access to paid-for goods or services;
- provide simple mechanisms for consumers to cancel their subscriptions; and
- no longer take adverse actions against consumers in connection with billing disputes with financial institutions or law enforcement.
Resources:
You can review all of the relevant administrative filings and press releases at the FTC's Enforcement Page.
Proposed Order
2025 Press Release
2019 Press Release
Complaint
