The Centre has urged e-commerce businesses to refrain from using “dark patterns” on their platforms that could mislead users or influence their purchasing decisions. A task team of 17 people has been assembled by the government to develop consumer protection regulations.
On June 13, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution held stakeholder consultations regarding this matter. On June 28, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar sent a letter to significant e-commerce sites.
To gather data on dark patterns that the Central Consumer Protection Authority can utilise to take enforcement action under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, the Ministry has begun classifying complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline 1915.
Dark patterns refer to the use of a design and choice architecture to deceive, compel, or persuade customers to make decisions that are not in their best interests. They use a design architecture that deceives or persuades customers to make decisions that might not be in their best interests in order to distort consumer autonomy. These include deceptive advertising, strategies to create a false sense of urgency, or requiring customers to sign up for a service before they can use it. Here are a few of these troubling trends that internet customers should be on the lookout for:
Urgency: This strategy aims to establish a sense of urgency or scarcity to persuade customers to buy something or do something.
Sneaking a basket: Dark patterns are used by some websites and apps to add more goods or services to the shopping cart without the consumers’ permission.
Verify shaming: Guilt is used as a motivator to get customers to follow. It belittles or disparages customers for holding opinions that differ from its own.
Mandatory Action: This entails compelling customers to take a step they might not otherwise take, such joining up for a service in order to access content.
Hidden Charges: This strategy entails withholding additional costs from customers until after they have made up their minds to buy.
