E-Commerce Websites Using Dark Patterns To Manipulate Users? MoS Consumer Affairs Decodes

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Banwari Lal Verma (B.L. Verma) on Tuesday, during a Monsoon Session of the Parliament said while answering a Rajya Sabha question that all e-commerce platforms have been advised through an advisory to ensure that their platforms do not engage in such deceptive and unfair trade practices.

What Are Dark Patterns?

Dark patterns are deceptive or manipulative designs practices that are used in the user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX) of websites in order to trick users into doing things they might not otherwise do.

These practices are done often to benefit the business at the user's expense.

Additionally, these tactics exploit human psychology and cognitive biases to influence user behaviour which includes making cancellation of subscriptions difficult or subtly adding items to a shopping cart.

What Did The Minister Say?

On being asked what the outcome of various guidelines notified by the government for the prevention and regulation of dark patterns used by e-commerce websites were, B.L. Verma said that the "Central Consumer Protection Authority, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, issued "Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023" on 30th November, 2023 for prevention and regulation of dark patterns listing 13 specified dark patterns identified in e-Commerce sector."

He further added that these dark patterns include false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisements, nagging, trick wording, Saas billing and rogue malwares.  

"In furtherance, to safeguard consumer rights and promote fair trade practices, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India convened a meeting on 28th May, 2025 under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy with representatives from major e-commerce companies, industry associations, Voluntary Consumer Organizations and National Law Universities for a focused dialogue on eliminating deceptive online practices," the minister said in an official statement.

What Is The Outcome Of The Meeting?

An Advisory in terms of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on self-audit by e-commerce platforms for detecting the dark patterns on their platforms to create a fair, ethical and consumer centric digital ecosystem has been issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority on June 5, 2025.

Additionally, all e-commerce platforms have been advised through the said Advisory to take necessary steps to ensure that their platforms do not engage in such deceptive and unfair trade practices which are in the nature of dark patterns.

Further, all e-commerce platforms have been advised to conduct self-audits to identify dark patterns, within three months of the advisory and take necessary steps to ensure that their platforms are free from such dark patterns.

E-commerce platforms also need to give self-declarations, on the basis of these self-audit reports, that their platform is not indulging in any dark pattern to ensure fair digital ecosystem along with building trust between customers and these platforms.

A Joint Working Group, comprising representatives from Ministries, National Law Universities and Voluntary Consumer Organizations, has also been constituted vide Office Memorandum dated 5th June, 2025 for identifying the dark patterns and stakeholders to work together in creating a transparent, ethical and user-centric online environment.

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