India Asks eCommerce Platforms to Remove ‘Dark Patterns’ That Deceive Customers

India’s government has reportedly sent more than 400 notices to eCommerce platforms and retailers, asking them to remove “dark patterns” that deceive customers.

Dark patterns are manipulative practices that include hidden charges, discounts that create a false sense of urgency and items that retailers sneak into shoppers’ baskets, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (May 28).

The government has also asked eCommerce platforms to comply with its guidelines covering dark patterns, and more than 50 platforms have agreed “in principle” to do so, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reported in New Delhi, according to the report.

Joshi said in a Wednesday post on X that he chaired a stakeholder meeting on dark patterns, adding that business should be based on trust.

“We are committed to transparency and empowering every consumer to make informed choices,” Joshi said in the post. “Together, we will create a marketplace that respects and protects every citizen’s rights and interests.”

In a thread of posts on X, an official account of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, said that Joshi said at the stakeholder meeting that there has been a “significant surge” in consumer reports related to dark patterns and that eCommerce firms “need to conduct self-audits to analyze and remove dark patterns in conformity with consumer protection.”

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in a January 2023 press release that digital “dark patterns” include tricks built into websites to hide information, to make it difficult to cancel subscriptions or to get consumers to click on links and make purchases inadvertently.

It was reported in October 2023 that a group of major U.S. tech companies expressed its opposition to the Indian government’s proposed stance against dark patterns, arguing that this move would detrimentally impact the government’s promise of facilitating an “ease of doing business” environment and introduce regulatory redundancy with existing laws.

The Asia Internet Coalition conveyed that the proposed rules could potentially impede the growth of India’s digital economy, that the group has urged the Indian government to prioritize the current self-regulatory framework as the primary means to curtail the use of dark patterns, and that online platforms are already subject to regulation in the country under various existing laws.