Muzz founder Shahzad Younas vowed to fight against Match Group, which he said is trying to monopolise the global dating app industry.

Muzz, a Muslim dating app formerly known as Muzmatch, is once again being sued by Match Group, the parent company of dating apps Tinder and Hinge, after allegedly rejecting its third acquisition proposal.

According to reports, Muzz’s Founder and CEO, Shahzad Younas, took to social media to express his distress over the situation, citing Match Group’s billion-dollar monopoly over the dating industry and its repeated attempts to purchase Muzz over the years

“Tinder/Hinge owners are suing us for the third time!” he said in a video, which attracted over 350K views since it was posted. “They’re trying to shut us down,” he added.

In the two-minute video, Younas elaborates that Match Group is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that operates more than 50 of the largest dating applications worldwide, including Tinder, Hinge, PlentyOfFish, and OkCupid. The conglomerate possesses approximately 50% of the global market share.

“These guys are huge, they’ve pretty much got a monopoly in the whole dating world, and they have tried to buy us three times,” he explained, looking distressed.

According to Younas’ disclosure, Match Group made an initial attempt to acquire Muzz in 2017 with a $15 million offer, but it was declined. The conglomerate then made another unsuccessful attempt with a reported offer of $25 million.

In 2019, Match Group presented a third proposal to acquire Muzz for $35 million, which was also turned down.

Younas clarifies in the video that his emotional attachment to the company is the reason he is unwilling to sell it, even for a substantial sum of money.

“I’m a Muslim, this means a lot to me. We cannot just have a random company out there controlling how Muslims do this. It’s too important to our community,” he said.

As per the new strategy to “focus on growing brands,” Match Group acquired Hawaya in 2019, which was subsequently shut down earlier this year. Younes further stated that after the unsuccessful acquisition attempt, Match Group initiated legal action against Muzmatch in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Unresting legal battles to claim the company

Muzz, the Muslim dating app, was embroiled in a costly legal dispute with Match Group.

The latter made several accusations against Muzz, including the use of the word “match,” which Match Group claimed was an attempt to mimic their brand. However, Muzz denied these allegations. In another attempt to hold power, Match Group filed another lawsuit over the swiping gesture, which they hold a US patent for.

To settle with Match Group, Muzz agreed to remove the swiping gesture and continued to fight the UK lawsuit. However, the legal battle came at a significant cost for Muzz, with the company spending millions of dollars on legal fees, a substantial amount for a company of its size, in comparison to Match Group.

As a result of the UK case, Muzz was forced to rebrand from Muzmatch to Muzz. Nonetheless, after the case, Muzz was granted an appeal on two grounds. While awaiting the appeal decision, Match Group sued Muzz again in the US, as revealed by Younes in the video.

“Why are they going after us? That’s a big question,” Younas says in the video.

“They want to dominate the global market, we’re the biggest in the Muslim space and that’s why they are going after us. It’s kinda obvious.”

He continued by saying that the rival company wants to just “bury us in legal fees, slow us down and try to kill us.”

Younes then called out to the Federal Trade Commission to look into anti-trust rulings.

“We’re not going to be bullied by these guys. We won’t be bought by them. We will fight right until the end.”

Match Group’s anti-competitive behaviour has now been brought to the attention of the FTC by Muzz.