Tinder to Eliminate Age-Based Pricing for Premium Features

Tinder promised to stop charging older users more to access the premium features offered through its multiple subscription tiers.

The popular dating app on Sunday confirmed that it will eliminate "age-based pricing for all our members in all markets by the end of Q2 this year."

"When we launched our first subscription we wanted to offer younger members [aged 28 and below] a lower price point … to make Tinder affordable for those in school or early in their careers," a company news release said. "Age and market were the only factors taken into account to determine pricing."

That practice was amended in 2019, after Tinder agreed to pay $24 million to settle a class-action age discrimination lawsuit alleging that people aged over 30 were charged twice as much as junior counterparts for the same subscription services.

It wasn't abolished, though. The company continues charging different rates for different ages in different countries, according to a report by Consumers International and the Mozilla Foundation, which relied on 96 "mystery shoppers" in six countries—New Zealand, US, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, India, Brazil—to highlight Tinder Plus financial discrepancies.

The study found "strong evidence" of age as a factor for personalized pricing, revealing that 18- to 29-year-olds were charged "substantially" less than older customers in all countries except Brazil. On average across all six locations, 30- to 49-year-olds were charged 65.3% more than younger users; there was minimal difference between 30- to 49-year-olds and those aged over 50.

"This does not appear ot be straightforward third-degree price discrimination whereby prices are set differently for different groups of consumers," the joint report said. "But rather a complex process more akin to first-degree price discrimination (which seeks to identify the maximum price each individual consumer is willing and able to pay)."

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A Tinder spokesperson told Engadget that the Consumers International report is "deeply flawed and contains completely false and outrageous allegations." Ongoing Tinder Coins in-app currency trials may have "impacted the findings," the company said, noting that prices are "typically" lower on Tinder's website than in app stores, due to Apple and Google's commission structure.

Moving forward, the dating platform is testing ways to make popular subscription features available on an a la carte basis to "give all our members far more ways to find a Tinder experience that fits their budget and needs."

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