Editorial: Crack down on dark patterns
Dark patterns are deceptive design practices employed by e-commerce apps and websites to manipulate users into making decisions that may not be in their best interest.
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In online media, it doesn’t take one too long to stumble upon a startup whizkid holding forth on the wonders of e-commerce platforms. Indeed, consumers find them a great convenience, and e-commerce has been growing at a spectacular CAGR of 18–20%, to be valued upwards of $150 billion. Although it still accounts for only 5 per cent of India’s overall retail market, e-commerce is a big boy now. So, it’s only fair to expect it to drop its more adolescent practices and abide by consumer laws that apply to the grown-up sectors of the industry.
While e-commerce platforms deserve to be feted for their tax compliance — which is decidedly greater than that of their brick-and-mortar counterparts — they are increasingly resorting to annoyances called ‘dark patterns’ to make the consumer spend a bit more or to lock him or her into unwanted purchase patterns.
Dark patterns are deceptive design practices employed by e-commerce apps and websites to manipulate users into making decisions that may not be in their best interest. A classic dark pattern adopted by international brands is to offer a one-month ‘free trial’ that will begin only after you’ve paid the full year’s subscription. Disappointingly, e-commerce platforms in India are routinely employing such tactics now.
One common trick followed is to slap additional charges such as delivery fees, packaging fees or unannounced taxes at the checkout stage, catching consumers off guard. Another sneaky practice, favoured by travel sites, is to slip in pre-selected add-ons like insurance, requiring users to manually opt out.
Online retailers commonly use scarcity pressure, such as stocks running out or fake discount countdowns, to prey upon consumers’ FOMO psychology to trigger impulsive purchases.
The most annoying of these tricks is to make subscriptions difficult to cancel. The cancellation involves multiple steps with misleading UI elements, making the process cumbersome and discouraging to users. Some operators even levy a punitive charge for cancellations. Often, low-cost labels are used to lure consumers into the purchase process, which finally leads to an ‘out of stock’ declaration with high-priced alternatives offered alongside.
Online giants like Amazon and Google are not above serving sponsored products, without clear labelling, above their organic search results, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish between paid promotions and genuine listings. Influencer posts are mixed into organic content and presented as spontaneous endorsements. Platforms routinely highlight positive reviews prominently while making it difficult to access negative feedback.
Almost all online business interfaces, especially insurance and automobile platforms, now use forced account creation as a ploy to capture consumer data, which is then freely used without adherence to privacy stipulations.
It is high time the dark pattern phenomenon was policed by consumer regulators. In 2023, the government did take note of these deceptive practices, and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs released guidelines identifying 13 dark patterns.
But enforcement has been indulgent. Last week, Minister for Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi met representatives of e-commerce firms and told them there has been a surge in complaints about dark patterns on the National Consumer Helpline. The Central Consumer Protection Authority has taken note of the complaints but will wait for the online retailers to remove these deceptive practices before taking further action.
Why wait is the question. Action would speak louder, would it not?
