Do dark patterns signal tougher days ahead for mobile commerce?

The government's decision to target deceptive practices like false discounts may trigger a massive change in India's e-commerce industry smartphone-driven

- VERNIKA AWAL

A round 15 years ago, as Internet access in India became more affordable and thus accessible to a wider section of the population, Sachin Bansal's Flipkart gained popularity. Over time, Flipkart emerged as one of India's first and most recognisable startups. With Amazon's entry in 2013, e-commerce surged, reshaping commerce in India. Now, as the Ministry of Consumer Affairs aims to regulate these giants, the smartphone-driven e-commerce industry faces a potential overhaul.

ENTER, THE 'DARK PATTERNS'

The government's crackdown on the e-commerce industry focuses on consumer protection, which the government points out is being increasingly violated through 'dark patterns'. In simple terms, dark patterns are habitual practices and tactics used by e-commerce and mobile commerce platforms to lure users. These include false promotions claiming 'limited period discounts' that do not match their advertising, thus duping users under false pretexts.

On 8 December 2023, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, through the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), identified 13 activities as dark patterns. These include false urgencies, forced actions, confirm shaming, auto-adding extra items to carts, disguised ads, and trick questions.

Forced actions involve advertising a product at a certain price, and subsequently asking them to subscribe at the last step of payment to avail of the discount. Confirm shaming, meanwhile, entails repeatedly prompting users that they may 'miss out on deals and offers-and also showing a misleading statistic to force them into buying a product or a subscription plan.