Online Daters Find it Hard to Sue Match.com

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On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the major part of a lawsuit brought by online daters against online matchmaking service Match.com. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in Dallas ruled that Match.com had not violated its user agreements, and that the agreements did not require the online dating site to remove dormant or inaccurate profiles.

The Internet daters had argued that the company duped consumers into believing that it had millions of subscribers, when in fact, more than half of its user profiles were either inactive, fake, or created by scammers.

The judge wrote that the language of the agreements “in no way requires Match.com to police, vet, update the website content,” or require the company to verify the accuracy of user profiles. Jeffrey Norton, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in an email, “we are reviewing the decision and considering our options.”

  

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The lawsuit had sought class-action status on behalf of subscribers to the online dating site and had been filed in 2010. The judge dismissed claims made by plaintiffs over breach of contract, and also asked the plaintiffs to explain why he should not dismiss the claims of deceptive trade practices brought under Texas law. The judge has given the plaintiffs until August 27 to submit their response, failing which that claim would also be dismissed.

Similar consumer lawsuits have also been brought against other dating sites previously. In 2007, Yahoo Inc settled a similar lawsuit for an amount of $ 4 million. The lawsuit had accused Yahoo of allowing fake profiles from people disinterested in dating.

A spokesman for Match.com said that the company had always maintained that the allegations against it were “unfounded.”

The case is Robinson, et al. V. Match.com, LLC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 10-cv-02651