Skip to content

Start a new discussion »

Dear New Jersey Attorney General, Is eHarmony honoring the gay settlement?

Today is exactly six months after the launch of Compatible Partners, the website opened by eHarmony because of its settlement of a discrimination complaint with the New Jersey Attorney General. To get themselves out of the lawsuit, eHarmony made several long-term promises and commitments to the state government of New Jersey,

We have made the commitment to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office that we will put our business effort behind the new site to make it successful.

and today is a great time to review what the company, who spends $93.3 million in advertising in 9 months, has done so far.

Product Offering

The company also agrees to ensure that same-sex users are matched via the same or equivalent technology as that used for heterosexual match-seekers, agrees to charge same-sex users the same fees, and agrees to offer the same service quality and terms of service as heterosexuals.

Products Offered EH CP
Matching technology Yes Yes
Premium Services products Yes Yes
Basic Plan fee structure, same fees Yes Yes
Total Connect Plan fee structure Yes No
“Something to Talk About” feature Yes No
Gift cards Yes No

Support to become successful in the service EH CP
Phone and email support Yes Yes
Support agents with customer’s sexual orientation Yes No
Dating and relationship advice articles Yes No
Dating and relationship advice newsletter Yes No
Dating and relationship advice discussion forum Yes No

The Compatible Partners phone number is 1-800-673-3548, separate.

Advertising Efforts

eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services

eHarmony will market the new site in gay and lesbian media outlets.

Photos in advertising materials EH CP
Photos of people, anybody Yes Yes
Photos of couples, facing the camera Yes No
Photos of couples that are actual users Yes No
Photos of actual users Yes No

Marketing Efforts EH CP
Promotional codes Yes Yes
Free communication weekends Yes Yes
TV Game Show (Takei and Altman) Yes Yes
TV ads Yes No
Print ads Yes No
Online ads Yes No
Sponsored Link ads when one Googles the name of site Yes No
Twitter account with a tweet within the last 5 months Yes No
Online affiliate marketing program Yes No
Tie-ups, e.g, with AOL, Comcast, Yahoo! Yes No

Research and Development Efforts

We’ll be increasing our knowledge about same-sex relationships and the nuances of how they are similar to and different from opposite-sex relationships.

  EH CP
Ongoing laboratory studies on couples Yes No
Paying couples to participate in studies Yes No
On-staff PhDs that specialize on customer’s sexual orientation Yes No
On-staff researchers that specialize on customer’s sexual orientation Yes No

Public Relations Efforts

The company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service, and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the “fair, accurate and inclusive” representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

  EH CP
Public relations specialist/consultant Yes Yes
Is the consultant on staff? Yes No
Has the consultant done anything in the last 5 months? Yes No
Is the site mentioned in corporate “About Us” pages? Yes No
Is the site mentioned in media interviews? Yes No
Is the site mentioned in press releases? Yes No
Is the site mentioned in corporate blog? Yes No

Sea of Change … or Stale Water in a Puddle?

In 1 April 2009, after her interview with eHarmony’s CEO, Kate X Messer wrote,

Whether their new-found commitment to same-sex happiness is genuine or simply a reaction to economies of scale, eHarmony, for better or for worse, is now in bed with the gay – perhaps in a marriage of convenience.

Bottomline? The settlement marks a sea change for eHarmony. Only time will tell if the “change” is not just the kind you can hear jingling in your pocket, but the kind you can believe in.

It’s neither, Kate. I wonder if someone can sue somebody for court order non-compliance.

What score will you give eHarmony? How is it doing in its promises?

More on eHarmony Blog

What others are reading right now

Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1

  1. From eHarmony is a bigot | Is a bigot. on 13 Oct 2009 at 7:21 pm

    [...] vs Compatible Partners checklist” (click through for full-size) published over at eHarmony blog to see how eHarmony, who spend $10M in advertising a month, have done so far flexing their [...]

Comments 6

  1. Pyke wrote:

    Compatible Partners is six months old, eh?

    This also means that the gay and lesbians who got their free six-month memberships (10,000 of them, supposedly) will one-by-one be expiring.

    They stopped the freebies in June 15, so … go predict the site’s traffic in the next 3 1/2 months.

    Posted 01 Oct 2009 at 11:06 pm
  2. eharmonyblog wrote:

    @rosswilliams @christiancafe @internet_dating:

    Ross Williams writes,

    Aren’t companies allowed to decide who they sell their products or services to? Is there something I’m missing here?

    It seems ridiculous that people have gone to the trouble of not only legal action against eHarmony but are now keeping an eye on things after they set up compatible partners.

    Sam Moorcroft writes,

    Well said, Ross. Can you imagine the furor if a straight person demanded that a gay site site accomodate heterosexuals? Then, monitored them and decided if they were devoting enough energy to this new site or not (one which they had no experience operating, btw).

    Guys, we can’t go back to the “companies are allowed to decide who they sell their products to” argument, because nobody forced eHarmony to open the site. It was two years after the complaint when they voluntarily told the NJ AG, ‘We want to get out of this lawsuit, so we propose this and that and we commit to this and that, including learning the ropes.’

    When someone ain’t doing his end of an agreement that he himself proposed, does he deserve a free pass? And are you guys saying don’t check his progress at all?

    (Hi Mark, thanks for covering this.)

    Posted 04 Oct 2009 at 10:14 pm
  3. newjersey wrote:

    It is ridiculous that an attorney general can strong arm a company into a business model like this. I truley wish eharmony decided to fight this one out.

    What happened to free markets and capitalism?

    Posted 05 Oct 2009 at 8:56 am
  4. eharmonyblog wrote:

    newjersey, it needs to be clarified that the NJ AG never told EH what to do. It was two years after the complaint when EH voluntarily told the NJ AG, ‘We want to get out of this lawsuit, so we propose this and that and we commit to this and that, including learning the ropes.’

    I also wish eharmony decided to fight this one out.

    Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 2:13 am
  5. annoymous1 wrote:

    I do not agree that companies can always decide who to do business with. What about civil rights. I remember a case where Denny’s refuse to do sell coffe to blacks. And they didn’t get away with it. Having said that , I really do not think the gays are well serve by having Compatible Partners. eHarmony will probably let it die on the vine. It one of those skirmishes in which no one wins. After all why should they serve gays when they have a more affluent group with straights who are hedonistic. BTW I am straight. The ideal that a business can just serve who it wants goes counter to my ideals of civil rights.

    Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 7:10 am
  6. annoymous1 wrote:

    BTW the logic in some of this is ridiculous. Singles who are straight are not more likely to try to get in the door to gay sites them whites during the civil rights area were going to try to get into black schools. In addition in spite of everything there are still individuals who homophobic and history bear that out. There is no reason why eHarmony could not accomodate both. However, again in a couple of years Compatible Partners probably will no longer be existence why because other sites may be more user friendly. I could be wrong I do not think so unless there is a real change for the better on eHarmony part.

    Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 7:41 am

Post a Comment

Your email is never published, shown nor shared.

In case it isn’t obvious, we are not eHarmony. Your message will not be sent to them, and no, we cannot help you with your account.

Unmoderated: Comments appear after two to five seconds. Have your own topic? Start a new discussion. XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe without commenting