Guardian News & Media has launched a legal action against two dating websites claiming they extracted thousands of profiles from its Soulmates online dating service.

The newspaper publisher launched its action against businessman Daniel Yorke and his companies Dating Network and X Factor Online Dating after being contacted by three members of its Soulmates service, in September last year, asking why their profiles were appearing on other dating sites.

According to a writ filed at the High Court, GMN claims that by November last year the dating sites had more than 9,000 profiles in their databases that were identical to those in Soulmates.