Govt issues notices to 11 firms including Zepto, Uber for using dark patterns to sway consumers, warns action

NEW DELHI: The government has issued notices to 11 companies, including Zepto, Rapido, Uber and Ola for deploying dark patterns to influence consumers’ decision making. Consumer affairs ministry on Wednesday also asked all major e-commerce and online platforms to follow govt’s guidelines on “dark patterns”, else actions will be taken to protect consumers’ interest.Speaking to reporters after a meeting with representatives of major e-commerce companies, industry associations and voluntary consumer organisations on eliminating deceptive online practices, consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said e-commerce players need to carry out internal audits to find out whether any dark pattern is used on their platforms, even by their sellers. They need to submit audit reports to the department.Joshi also announced that a joint working group will be set up for effective implementation of the guidelines and curb this unfair trade practice. In November 2023, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), under the Consumer Protection Act, had notified Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns to curb this menace on digital and offline platforms.Joshi said that his department has identified 13 dark patterns — false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisement, Nagging, Trick question, Saas billing, and rogue malwares — and asked the companies to act against any such practice.

Consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said that dark patterns are designed, algorithm based and revenue driven. She said the onus is on companies to eliminate this from their system. She added that the CCPA acts and will take action against any unfair trade practice.As per the guidelines, dark patterns have been defined as any practice or deceptive design pattern using user interface or user experience interactions on any platform that is designed to mislead or trick users to do something they originally did not intend or want to do, by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice.