The use of dark patterns in e-commerce platform sessions by DoCA

The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) conducted a session on ‘Dark Patterns and Guideline Implementation Strategies’ on June 18. The aim of the session was to discuss issues related to dark patterns and deceptive designs used by e-commerce platforms and effective ways to implement them “Guidelines for Preventing and Regulating Dark Patterns, 2023”. According to a press release, the session was attended by various stakeholders such as IITs, BHUs and industry representatives from All India Gaming Federation, Zomato, EaseMyTrip, Urban Company, Uber and CRED, among others.

The Guidelines for Preventing and Regulating Dark Patterns define them as “any practice or deceptive design pattern that exploits UI/UX (user interface/user experience) interactions on any platform; intended to mislead or trick users into doing something they did not originally intend or want to do. These projects influence decision making, choice or the customer. Thus, the guidelines classify them as “misleading advertising or an unfair commercial practice or an infringement of consumer rights.”

Methods to prevent use

The session discussed several methods that can be used to prevent e-commerce platforms from using dark patterns and improve their user interface. Belong to them:

• based on consumer opinions
• consumer satisfaction
• repeat user rate
• using built-in applications/features to identify patterns that do not meet guidelines
• self-policing of such specific dark patterns by e-commerce platforms

Students from IIT and BHU also presented a demo video of an extension tool under development that can identify these patterns in e-commerce platforms and alert users using large language models (LLM), generative artificial intelligence and other complex models. Industry stakeholders have promised to provide students with access to their datasets to help their tool distinguish deceptive designs from real designs on their platforms.

Last November, the guidelines identified 13 dark patterns, namely; Fake urgency, cart smuggling, confirmation shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface glitches, bait and switch, drip pricing, hidden ads and teasing, tricks, Saas billing and fake malware.

Criticism of the guidelines

The guidelines were released after DoCA’s consultative session with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and stakeholders in June 2023. Subsequently, DoCA formed a task force comprising ASCI, industry representatives, NLUs, VCOs and e-commerce platforms including Google, Flipkart , RIL, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, Tata CLiQ, Facebook, Meta, Ship Rocket and Go-MMT to create the guidelines.

However, the publication of the draft guidelines for public consultation has sparked some criticism. In large part, the Asia Internet Coalition and the Internet Freedom Foundation noted that the guidelines do not provide adequate definitions, limiting the list and categorization of dark patterns as areas of privacy concern. They further said that there is significant overlap between the guidelines and existing laws such as the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020, ASCI Dark Pattern Guidelines, Introductory Advertising Guidelines in error and the Act on the Protection of Digital Personal Data. , 2023.

The IFF’s position paper was that: “While sector regulators may conduct compliance assessments suo moto, the Guidelines may provide a public avenue for aggrieved consumers to report dark patterns. The two can coexist harmoniously if the scope of jurisdiction is clearly divided at the outset.” It is also suggested that consumers and civil society should be able to report new observations of these patterns through a specific portal.

Read also: