A monthly figure is not a useful price when the customer is committing to a year and the renewal can arrive at a different rate.
The Federal Court has found that eHarmony made misleading representations to Australian consumers about the pricing, renewal and duration of its dating memberships. The findings cover claims about free dating, automatic renewal, one-month memberships, early cancellation and monthly prices that omitted a mandatory payment fee.
The court found that premium memberships presented as lasting 6, 12 or 24 months automatically renewed for another 12-month lock-in. The renewal price could be up to five times the initial price, or hundreds of dollars more. The terms were displayed in small text late in the purchase process and in the service’s terms and conditions.
A payment interval is not a contract price
eHarmony displayed a ‘from $xx/month’ figure without clearly presenting the minimum total commitment alongside it. The court found that the company also failed to state prominently that paying monthly attracted an additional mandatory fee. A low instalment figure can make a long contract feel smaller without changing what the customer owes.
A legible subscription offer needs four values in the same decision area: the total minimum cost, billing interval, initial term and renewal term and price. None belongs in a tooltip, collapsed disclosure or later receipt. The interface should derive all four from the same pricing record so a promotional screen cannot drift away from the contract created at checkout.
Cancellation cannot rewrite the term
The court also found that eHarmony represented that consumers could cancel early when they could not. That is a product-state problem as much as a wording problem: ‘cancel’ may stop a future renewal while leaving the current fixed-term liability intact, but the screen must distinguish those outcomes before the customer acts.
Penalties, consumer redress and other orders will be decided later. The finding already establishes the useful standard: the customer must be able to see the complete commitment before payment, not reconstruct it after the renewal lands.
Sources & further reading
Sources establish the reported facts above. Analysis and conclusions are enshit.club’s own.