eHarmony, a popular dating website, was recently hit with a lawsuit that resulted in the popular dating website agreeing to a $1.28 million settlement. The consumer-protection lawsuit was filed by “four California counties, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Napa, and Shasta, along with the city of Santa Monica over its automatic-charging practices.” In addition to the $1.28, the company will also “pay $1 million in separate restitution to customers who were unknowingly enrolled into a subscription to the website between March 10, 2012, and Dec. 16, 2016.”
eHarmony, a popular dating website, was recently hit with a lawsuit that resulted in the popular dating website agreeing to a $1.28 million settlement. The consumer-protection lawsuit was filed by “four California counties, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Napa, and Shasta, along with the city of Santa Monica over its automatic-charging practices.” In addition to the $1.28, the company will also “pay $1 million in separate restitution to customers who were unknowingly enrolled into a subscription to the website between March 10, 2012, and Dec. 16, 2016.”
But what happened, exactly? Well, according to the complaints, people were being locked into subscriptions with the dating website without being informed on the matter. Additionally, in one complaint filed by the counties, eHarmony “did not clearly and conspicuously explain the automatically charged subscription fee, did not provide the consumer with their dating contract, or explain their right to cancel as required by law.”
The complaints and lawsuit launched an investigation, which eHarmony had the grace to cooperated with fully. As a result, the company “agreed to make changes to their website and provide proper notices.”
In response to the settlement, some believe the matter will help consumers become more aware of what they’re signing up for and will push businesses to be more transparent about things like subscriptions fees. For example, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Deng said that “as online service subscriptions or club services, like a monthly product delivery, become increasingly commonplace, the settlement should spur buyers to be more mindful of what they sign up for and for sellers to be abundantly transparent.” She added:
“Sometimes the details aren’t very noticeable so the consumer doesn’t know what they’re getting into. Read the fine print, and know what you’re buying. And companies that choose to offer auto-renewal, they need to make the terms very obvious. They need to be sure that terms of cancellation are clear, conspicuous, and noticeable to consumers.”
It should be noted, though, that even though eHarmony cooperated with the investigation and agreed to the settlement, it has yet to admit any fault in the matter and issued the following statement:
“Without any admission, we have cooperated with the government, which has previously launched similar investigations against a long list of e-commerce companies, and have chosen to settle to avoid the distraction and expense of protracted litigation. In collaboration with the government, eHarmony has implemented a new industry standard when disclosing terms in order to make the user experience even better.”
So how will eHarmony subscribers know if they’re included in the settlement? For starters, the company will notify all eligible recipients “of any monetary recovery, which will average about $30 for each affected customer.”
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