Pact Settles ROSCA And FTCA Claims With The Commission

App maker accused of failing to live up to business model

Dieter's Dilemma

It's an interesting approach, both to business and to healthy living: First, build a community. Next, set standards of behavior. Then, pay people who succeed at meeting those standards by penalizing people who fail to do the same.

This is the basic model behind Pact, a Seattle-based app developer that launched its flagship Pact app back in 2012. Pact would charge members between $5 and $50 when they missed a health-related activity – exercising, for instance, or hitting dietary goals. That money would fund members who did hit their goals.

The model was unique, if a bit Orwellian: A member's success or failure would be tracked by other apps, such as MyFitnessPal, or even by GPS monitoring, which was used to monitor whether or not a member was inside a gym!