People looking for love who thought they were signing up for a limited subscription to eHarmony’s dating website were charged hundreds of dollars in renewals they claim they didn’t know they were agreeing to – and some were chased by debt collectors, the Australian federal court has heard.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing the US-based eHarmonyfor misleading and deceptive conductover claims of providing free dating on its platform, and the information consumers were given on subscription costs and renewal terms when buying a premium subscription.
The ACCC said in 2023 it had received hundreds of complaints from consumers about eHarmony and its memberships.
At Monday’s opening of the case in the federal court, the counsel for the competition watchdog, Dr Oren Bigos, told the court the ACCC would rely on six confidential consumer affidavits as evidence that people were being misled by the pricing and the automatic subscription renewals.
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One consumer signed up for six months, and in February 2023, her subscription was renewed for nearly $480 for 12 months. Bigos said the consumer wasn’t aware of the renewal until seeing the credit card charge, which she thought was an error. She subsequently received notices from debt collectors for eHarmony.
A second customer found he owed nearly $600 for a 12-month renewed membership, with a third customer who ditched eHarmony finding he owed $358 after his six-month membership was renewed for 12 months.
The ACCC has alleged that eHarmony had given consumers the understanding or impression that the length of their subscription at the point of sign-up was the extent of the time they would be subscribed for – without any renewal included.
eHarmony has argued that at the point of subscription, consumers are warned of the renewal, and that renewal information is contained in the terms and conditions of the site.
The terms and conditions state customers will be alerted prior to the renewal to give people time to cancel.
Michael Hodge, eHarmony’s counsel argued there was a disconnect between the evidence from consumers the ACCC relied on, and the pages from eHarmony’s website that the ACCC has alleged misled consumers.
Hodge argued that users spent three and a half minutes on the second subscription page. This, he said, indicated they were likely reading the contents of the page and the terms – and not just entering their credit card details.
Hodge pointed out the text advising about automatic renewal is placed directly above the subscribe button on the page, and the court must consider whether the ordinary consumer would read that.
He said eHarmony’s evidence showed four out of five first-time subscribers to eHarmony turn off automatic renewal, which he said can infer that it’s something consumers would have read on subscribing.
The ACCC alleges that users who had signed up to what had been presented as a free dating site could do very little on the site on the free tier.
After going through an 80-question compatibility quiz and entering in their personal details, they would discover it was a “very limited service, with a very limited ability to interact with other members,” Bigos said.
Other members’ photos are blurred, and between November 2019 and June 2023, basic users could only receive one message, and only send one message, one emoji, and one image-based ice-breaker prompt.
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“Dating is only possible when one upgrades to a paid premium membership,” Bigos said.
eHarmony argued that the pages where free dating was represented in their entirety do not convey the misrepresentation that the ACCC alleges.
Bigos said users were hooked into continuing to use the platform after investing time setting up their profile.
The ACCC took the court through the sign-up process. It alleges customers were not given the full payment charge of the plans they were signing up to at the point of purchase.
Plans of between six months and two years charged in monthly instalments would incur an extra fee in some cases if the user did not pay the total amount upfront.
This additional charge information was displayed when a user would hover their mouse over the plan.
The ACCC argued the “from $x” listing is not sufficient, and users could not calculate the price until further along in the subscription process.
The regulator has also argued that eHarmony represented that users could cancel their account if they have second thoughts, but it was misleading because consumers could not get refunds for unused amounts.
Both parties agreed eHarmony did not refund users for cancelled subscriptions.
The case is expected to run until Friday.