OPW -- Mar 25 -- A class action lawsuit has been filed against Mate1 for providing its services to women for free but charging men. The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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This is BS, first Eharmony is forced to accept gays and now Mate1 can't attract more women.
Why is it against the law for a business to be run how the owners see fit. This isn't about human rights it's about meddling and nothing more!
The really angers me!
Posted by: Jackie | Mar 25, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Is there an attorney among us? I'm wondering if Mate1 has a defense by saying that in the universe of available dating sites there are a variety of prices and some like Plentyoffish.com are free to everyone. Yet the men who choose to pay for Mate1 do so voluntarily, expecting prettier women, or what have you. Mate1 does not have a monopoly of the California online dating market.
Posted by: Jonathan Crutchley | Mar 25, 2009 at 01:34 PM
So here's the wonderful history of this. In 2003, a bar in San Diego, like many bars was having ladies night's where women got in free and drank cheaply. One guy was very upset about this. (I can't begin to speculate why.)
He sued and he won. California courts ruled that ladies nights were a form of gender discrimination. Of course they did not look at the practicality of the business decision, nor did they consider that for every one guy like the idiot who brought the suit, there were 1000 guys who thought women should drink free. Nor did the consider that the promotion was done to benefit men not discriminate against them.
Thus, it is illegal in California to charge men and women two different prices for anything, dating services included. (When I ran a bar what we would do was offer drink specials on Appletinis and Cosmos. Guys could order them if they wanted, but they rarely did.)
Since 2003, one Michael Cohn has made a career on bringing suits based on this law. In Cohn v. Corinthian Colleges, Inc., Angels Baseball, LP, et al., litigated in Orange County. Michael Cohn, a veteran of more than 25 “Ladies’ Night” lawsuits since August 2003, sued the Angels baseball club and its co-sponsor, Corinthian Colleges, for giving away tote bags as Mother’s Day gifts to women fans who attended the Angels baseball game on Mother’s Day 2005. He alleged that he went to the game, asked for a tote bag, and was refused on account of his gender. His lawyer, who doubles as a “Ladies’ Night” plaintiff himself (in more than 40
cases so far), pegs damages at about $80 million – $4,000 statutory damages for each of an estimated 20,000 men who attended the game on Mother’s Day – plus attorneys’ fees.
How about that, sports fans?
Posted by: Glenn G. Millar | Mar 26, 2009 at 02:19 AM
Not sure whether technicalities are enough to stop such an action or trip up the plaintiffs, but it seems whoever put the action together hadn't done their homework properly..
Tell me if I've missed something here.
Action states: Plaintiff joined Mate1 on 12 September 2008 and 16 September 2008
Exhibit 1 shows receipt for membership: 12 September 2007.
Card used for payment actually expired July 08
Good luck Mate1!
*Attention to detail*
Posted by: Roger | Mar 26, 2009 at 06:54 AM
What an idiotic lawsuit! I thought primary rule of capitalism is "don't like - don't buy" - but it looks like people want to live in communism there they rule other's business.
Next step will be another "communist" lawsuit forcing all sites with paid access to provide free access/functionality for those who don't want to pay for the service - or cannot afford $10-30 for it (like poor people have rights to date with each other no matter if they have money or not)
Good luck, Mate1!
Posted by: PK | Mar 26, 2009 at 08:43 AM
By the same token if I own a bar why can't I decide if people should be able to smoke inside ? Nobody is forcing anyone to work there or go in there. Whatever happened to freedom of choice ? Bars around here in Illinois used to get around the drink thing by giving women a free drink ticket with a cover charge but NOT the men and none ever got sued that know of. Websites do all kinds of things that most people don't know about unless you have a male AND female ad posted and you SEE the difference.
Posted by: JB | Mar 26, 2009 at 10:25 AM
I would be willing to join any class action against Mate1.
I suggest that the women that post comments supporting Mate1 have a financial interest from Mate1.
This would be Mate1 standard MO.
Posted by: EW | Mar 08, 2010 at 04:35 PM
F@gs don't deserve rights. Homosexuality is disgusting. But have no fear - nature has a way of rectifying things. Sooner or later another virus will emerge to give them the punishment they truly deserve for defying and disrespecting the natural order of things.
Posted by: JIT | Sep 17, 2010 at 08:57 AM
Its a bit silly that each website has to pretty much accept everyone. They should be able to do what they want with their site. They do own it, after all.
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