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The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) has released draft guidelines on prevention and regulation of ‘dark patterns’ such as subscription trap, and other practices that create false urgency or force consumers into buying additional products. Stakeholders can send in their comments before October 5..
‘Dark patterns’ are practices or deceptive designs created using UI/UX (user interface/user experience) technology to mislead or trick users into doing something unintended. Such practices also subvert or impair consumer autonomy, decision-making or choice, and amount to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights, the draft guidelines stated.
The guidelines define some of the key prevalent dark patterns and, once finalised, will be applicable on all platforms, advertisers and sellers
“The objective of the guidelines is to identify and regulate such practices which tend to manipulate or alter consumer choices, often by using deceptive or misleading techniques or manipulated user interfaces/web designs. Thus, the proposed guidelines seek to oversee such practices which are prejudicial to the consumer interests,” a DoCA statement said.
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Online platforms cannot imply urgency or scarcity to mislead a user into making an immediate purchase. They also cannot indulge in ‘basket sneaking’ by including additional products, services, or payments to charity or donation at the time of checkout from a platform, without the consent of the user.
Other dark patterns identified include confirm shaming, which means creating a sense of fear or shame or ridicule or guilt in the mind of the user to nudge them to act in a certain way that leads to purchasing a product or service from the platform or continuing a subscription of a service. They cannot also make cancellation of a paid subscription impossible, complex or lengthy.
Platforms cannot nag users through overload of requests unrelated to their intended purchase and must reveal all elements of pricing upfront, the draft guidelines stated.
The guidelines are based on the recommendations of a task force set up by DoCA that included representatives from industry associations, and e-commerce platforms including Google, Flipkart, RIL, Amazon, Go-MMT, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, Tata CLiQ, Facebook, Meta, Ship Rocket and Go-MMT.
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