Plenty of Fish (POF) is a dating site for adults and, according to the company, is used by four million people-a-day.
The plaintiffs are two men and two women who use the online dating site. Under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, they assert discrimination on the basis of age and gender.
The Unruh Act, prohibits businesses in California from discriminating on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.
The complaint asks the court to certify a class of all California residents who have used Plenty of Fish on, or after, approximately December first, 2021, and a second class of California women, who were users in the same period.
The allegations of discrimination are based on the way the site screens the people with whom a user can connect. According to the plaintiffs, the site's search engine contains an age range filter, which in some circumstances, overrides the user's preference, automatically adjusting to singles within 14 years of their age.