Government seeks public comments on draft guidelines for regulation of ‘dark patterns’ on online platforms

The government has sought public comments on draft guidelines for prevention and regulation of “dark patterns” which are nothing but tactics used by online players to deceive customers or manipulate their choices.

The government has sought public comments on draft guidelines for prevention and regulation of "dark patterns" which are nothing but tactics used by online players to deceive customers or manipulate their choices.

The draft guidelines, issued by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, list various deceptive practices being adopted by online platforms in the nature of dark patterns which are against the interests of consumers.

“The Ministry has sought public comments/suggestions on the draft guidelines within 30 days till October 5,” an official statement said.

According to the draft guidelines, "dark patterns" are defined as any practices or deceptive design patterns using UI/UX (user interface/user experience) interactions on any platform; 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; amounting to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights.

Under the guidelines, around 10 dark patterns have been specified. They are: false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisement and nagging.

"False Urgency" means falsely stating or implying the sense of urgency or scarcity so as to mislead a user into making an immediate purchase or take an immediate action, which may lead to a purchase.