The Consumer Affairs Minister directed all e-commerce companies to conduct self-audits to analyse and remove dark patterns in compliance with consumer protection.
Dark Patterns
- Definition: Dark patterns mean practices or deceptive design patterns using UI/UX (user interface/user experience) interactions designed to mislead users to act in an unintended manner by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice.
- It amounts to misleading advertisement, unfair trade practice, or violation of consumer rights.
Provisions to tackle Dark Patterns
- Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023: It defines and regulates 13 specific dark patterns under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
- Consumer protection tools developed through Dark Patterns Buster Hackathon 2023:
- Jagriti App: Enables consumers to report dark patterns on e-commerce platforms directly to the CCPA.
- Jago Grahak Jago App: Shields users from malicious platforms and offers real-time safety scores for the e-commerce links.
- Jagriti Dashboard: Robust analytical tool, generating detailed reports on dark patterns for e-commerce platforms under the CCPA’s scrutiny.
