Discriminatory Pricing

Dating app Tinder was recently found guilty of age discrimination based on their pricing policies.  Tinder charges individuals over 30 twice the price they charge those under 30 for their premium service, Tinder Plus.  Their rationale was that younger people have less money to spend but the court said that older members can be budget constrained as well.  You can read more about the issue in this Slate article.  Tinder argued that companies like Amazon do the same thing (with a lower price for Prime membership for students) but there’s an important distinction.  Ask your students why what Amazon does is legal and what Tinder does is not.  The key is the concept of protected classes.  Amazon provides their discount based on status as a student.  While most students are younger, there can be older students as well.  Most importantly, “student” is not a government recognized protected class whereas age, race, sex, etc. are recognized as protected classes and subject to discriminating scrutiny.