E-Commerce || What are dark patterns and why has the Indian government banned them

The new guidelines were formed in consultation with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), law firms, and e-commerce platforms. Various representatives from Flipkart, Google, Reliance, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Meta, Ship Rocket, Go-MMT, Ola and more were also consulted.

What are dark patterns?

Think of a dark pattern as carefully constructed mental traps embedded in a user interface, to trick people into doing something you don't want to. For example - websites might use deceptive wording or intentional phrasing to shame you into acting, like third-party cookie agreements.

These copies are usually written to psychologically manipulate a visitor into agreeing to something they want to, but this is just one example of dark patterns.

Some websites like Facebook, intentionally make it hard for users to opt out of sharing information, by making the option to do so, fairly hidden or not intuitive. You may have also noticed that some websites make it extremely easy to sign up, but very difficult to delete your account.

These patterns are influenced by human thinking and designed deliberately to get you to click somewhere where you don't want to, or get you to agree to something you don't want to.

Under the guidelines issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), 13 deceptive patterns have been outlined as banned. These include creating a false sense of urgency by artificial scarcity also known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Basket sneaking, which is a means to add extra unwanted items to your checkout cart on e-commerce sites, without your knowledge. Forced action, which implores the user to sign up for extra services or guilts them into sharing personal information.

Others include disguised advertisements, confirm shaming, subscription traps, drip pricing, interface interference, bait and switch, nagging, SaaS billing, trick questions, rogue malware and more.

These guidelines apply to all platforms that offer goods and services in India, even advertisers and sellers.

What do the new guidelines say?

If a service or platform is found engaging in one of the 13 patterns, it will be subject to penalty under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. E-commerce platforms will face heavy penalties if they push news articles or false advertisements, which are blended into the interface to trick people into clicking them.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority will also keep an eye on new emerging dark patterns to add to the list.

The new guidelines were formed in consultation with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), law firms, and e-commerce platforms. Various representatives from Flipkart, Google, Reliance, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Meta, Ship Rocket, Go-MMT, Ola and more were also consulted.