Item 3. Legal Proceedings
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
Overview
We are, and from time to time may become, involved in various legal proceedings arising in the normal
course of our business activities, such as trademark and patent infringement claims, trademark oppositions, and
consumer or advertising complaints, as well as stockholder derivative actions, class action lawsuits, mass
arbitrations, and other matters. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may be subject to
insurance coverage. The litigation matters described below involve issues or claims that may be of particular
interest to our stockholders, regardless of whether any of these matters may be material to our financial
position or operations based upon the standard set forth in the SEC’s rules.
Consumer Class Action Litigation Challenging Tinder’s Age-Tiered Pricing
On May 28, 2015, a putative state-wide class action was filed against Tinder in state court in California. See
Allan Candelore v. Tinder, Inc. , No. BC583162 (Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles). The complaint
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principally alleges that Tinder violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act by offering and charging users over a
certain age a higher price than younger users for subscriptions to its premium Tinder Plus service. Plaintiff seeks
damages in an unspecified amount. On July 15, 2024, the court granted Plaintiff’s motion to certify a class based
upon California Tinder Plus and Tinder Gold subscribers age 29 and over. On January 17, 2025, the court denied
our motion to compel the class and the plaintiff to arbitration. We filed a Notice of Appeal on January 24, 2025,
and on April 18, 2025, the court stayed the case pending our appeal. On September 10, 2025, the parties agreed
to settle the case on a class-wide basis for a payment of $60.5 million, and on January 13, 2026, the court
preliminarily approved the settlement agreement. The settlement amount was placed into escrow in January
2026, pending the final court approval.
Irish Data Protection Commission Inquiry Regarding Tinder’s Practices
On February 3, 2020, we received a letter from the Irish Data Protection Commission (the “DPC”) notifying
us that the DPC had commenced an inquiry examining Tinder’s compliance with GDPR, focusing on Tinder’s
processes for handling access and deletion requests and Tinder’s user data retention policies. On January 8,
2024, the DPC provided us with a preliminary draft decision alleging that certain of Tinder’s access and retention
policies, largely relating to protecting the safety and privacy of Tinder’s users, violate GDPR requirements. We
filed our response to the preliminary draft decision on March 15, 2024. We believe we have strong defenses to
these claims and will defend vigorously against them.
FTC Investigation of Certain Subsidiary Data Privacy Representations
On March 19, 2020, the FTC issued an initial Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) to the Company requiring us
to produce certain documents and information regarding the allegedly wrongful conduct of OkCupid in 2014 and
our public statements in 2019 regarding such conduct and whether such conduct and statements were unfair or
deceptive under the FTC Act. On May 26, 2022, the FTC filed a Petition to Enforce Match Civil Investigative
Demand, and on June 20, 2025, the Court ordered that the FTC’s Petition be granted in part and denied in part.
See FTC v. Match Group, Inc. , No. 1:22-mc-00054 (District of Columbia). We believe we have strong defenses to
any allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend vigorously against them.
Meslage Securities Class Action And Related Derivative Actions
On November 25, 2024, a Match Group stockholder filed a complaint in the Central District of California
against Match Group, Inc., its Chief Executive Officer, and its President and Chief Financial Officer seeking to
recover unspecified monetary damages on behalf of a putative class of acquirers of Match Group securities
between May 2, 2023 and November 6, 2024. See Sébastian Meslage v. Match Group, Inc. et al. , No: 2:24-
cv-10153-MEMF-PVC (Central District of California). The complaint alleges that Match Group materially
understated the challenges affecting its Tinder business and, as a result, understated the risk that Tinder's
monthly active user count would not recover by the time the Company reported its financial results for the third
fiscal quarter of 2024. On July 24, 2025, the court appointed Evan Weisz as the lead plaintiff. On September 22,
2025, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed without prejudice the Meslage putative class action as to all defendants.
In addition, in December 2024, purported Match Group stockholders filed two derivative complaints in the
Central District of California (nominally on behalf of the Company) against certain of Match Group, Inc.’s current
and former executive officers and members of its board of directors, alleging violations of the federal securities
laws and breach of fiduciary duty stemming from the same or similar purported misrepresentations as the
securities class action. See Hollin v. Kim, et al. , No. 2:24-CV-10776 (Central District of California), and Roy v Kim,
et al. , No. 2:24-cv-11007 (Central District of California). In August 2025, a third derivative complaint was filed in
the Central District of California alleging similar causes of action. See Habedus v. Kim, et al. , No. 2:25-cv-07171
(Central District of California). On September 9, 2025, the court dismissed the Habedus derivative action with
prejudice as to all defendants. As to the remaining derivative actions, we believe that we have strong defenses
to the allegations and will defend vigorously against them.
Netherlands Privacy Class Action
On December 17, 2024, a writ of summons was filed against MTCH Technologies Services Limited, an
indirect subsidiary of the Company, and Match Group, Inc. in the District Court of Amsterdam. Among other
things, the lawsuit alleges that defendants unlawfully collected, processed, and shared Dutch Tinder users’
personal data without proper consent in violation of GDPR and Dutch consumer protection laws. See Stichting
Take Back Your Privacy v. MTCH Technologies Services Limited et al. (Amsterdam). The lawsuit purports to
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represent a class of Dutch Tinder users from May 25, 2018 until the court’s final judgment and seeks monetary
damages and injunctive relief. On May 7, 2025, we filed a motion contesting jurisdiction, and the plaintiff filed an
opposition on June 18, 2025. We believe that we have strong defenses to the allegations and will defend
vigorously against them.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosure
Not applicable.
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PART II