eHarmony Caught Charging Customers Without Clear Warning, Court Rules
An Australian court has ruled that the dating website eHarmony misled its customers by trapping them in subscriptions they didn't fully understand. Justice Christopher Horan delivered the judgment on Tuesday, finding that the US-based company broke Australian consumer law in six different ways up until July 2024. The case was brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the government agency that protects consumers from unfair business practices, in 2023. The Guardian
The ACCC filed the lawsuit over two main issues: eHarmony's claim that people could use the site for free, and the information customers were given about how much paid memberships cost and how renewals worked. The regulator said eHarmony gave misleading information when customers signed up for premium (paid) memberships. The case went to a Federal Court trial that was expected to run through early June 2025. ACCC The Guardian
The court found that eHarmony told people a free membership would let them communicate with other users for dating, when that wasn't really the case. The company also gave misleading information about the difference between monthly and yearly pricing and about automatic renewal — a setting where your subscription renews by itself and your card gets charged again without you taking action. The court said eHarmony's website made it look like premium plans lasted for a set period, when they actually renewed automatically at full price. It's like signing up for what you think is a one-year gym membership, only to discover the company keeps charging you every year without asking. The Guardian
Between November 2019 and June 2024, 1.3 million people in Australia signed up for a free eHarmony account, and 258,956 paid for a premium membership. About 20% of paying users (44,856 people) had their membership automatically renewed, and 7,148 users had their subscriptions renewed two or more times. Both sides agreed that eHarmony did not give refunds to users who cancelled their subscriptions. The Guardian The Guardian
Justice Horan said he thought it was unlikely that most people had knowingly chosen to renew. He said that automatically renewing a subscription at a higher, full price — with no refund possible — was important enough that it should have been shown to customers more clearly and earlier in the sign-up process. The court heard real examples from customers. One woman deleted the app a couple of months after joining and was then charged $478.80 on her credit card. When she cancelled the card, eHarmony sent her case to a debt collection agency. Another customer had $598.80 sent to debt collection and said the experience had taken a 'huge toll' on him. The Guardian
The ACCC and eHarmony have been asked to come back with proposals for what the company should do next. An eHarmony spokesperson said the company cooperated with the ACCC, has already made changes to improve transparency on the platform, and is reviewing the judgment and its options. ACCC commissioner Luke Woodward said the agency is concerned about subscription traps in digital services and that the ruling showed the need for clear information about ongoing subscriptions. The Guardian
The bigger picture is that this ruling is part of the ACCC's ongoing effort to crack down on subscription traps in digital services. The court's finding that automatic renewal at a full, non-refundable price needed to be shown more clearly sets a standard for how subscription companies operating in Australia must design their sign-up and payment processes. About one in five paying eHarmony users in Australia was caught by automatic renewal, and since no refunds were given, those customers directly paid the price of the misleading practices.
The case also shows how Australian consumer law can reach foreign companies selling digital services to Australians. Justice Horan decided that what mattered was the overall message customers received — not whether renewal terms were technically written somewhere on the site. That means platforms are responsible for making sure their design clearly communicates the real cost and length of a subscription, rather than burying the details in fine print. The court orders that follow will determine what eHarmony has to pay or change, and could become a reference point for future cases against other subscription services in Australia.
