Silicon Valley websites, social media and apps are increasingly utilising an arsenal of manipulative and deceitful techniques called Dark Patterns to influence and force web users to part with their money easier, and in order to trap consumers into making purchases they would not normally make.

Dark Patterns

“Dark patterns” refer to deceitful design techniques employed by websites and apps to influence user behaviour in ways that benefit the service providers, often at the expense of the users. These design elements are intentionally subtle and misleading and are crafted to manipulate consumers into making decisions they might not otherwise make, such as signing up for subscriptions, making additional purchases, or staying subscribed to services longer than intended.

Prevalence and Study Findings

A comprehensive study conducted by the FTC in collaboration with international consumer protection networks analysed 642 websites and apps offering subscription services. The findings revealed that nearly 76 percent of these platforms employed at least one dark pattern, with 67 percent using multiple such techniques. These statistics highlight the widespread use of deceptive practices in the digital subscription industry, raising significant concerns about consumer protection.

Common Dark Patterns and Their Impact

1. Sneaking:

• • Trick: This technique involves concealing automatic subscription renewals during the sign-up process or making it difficult to disable them.
  • Prevalence: Used by 81 percent of the analysed platforms.
  • Impact: Consumers often find themselves unknowingly enrolled in recurring payments, leading to unexpected charges.

2. Obstruction:

• • Trick: This tactic makes certain actions, such as cancelling a subscription, unnecessarily complicated or tedious. It often includes hidden or hard-to-find options for opting out.
  • Prevalence: Employed by a significant number of services, with 70 percent not providing clear cancellation information and 67 percent not specifying cancellation deadlines.
  • Impact: Consumers face difficulties in cancelling services, resulting in continued charges for unwanted subscriptions.

3. Forced Action:

• • Trick: Platforms require users to provide payment details to access free trials, which can lead to automatic charges if users forget to cancel before the trial ends.
  • Prevalence: Observed in 66.4 percent of the studied platforms.
  • Impact: Users are often charged for services they intended to try for free, leading to potential financial losses.

4. Social Proof:

• • Trick: Leveraging crowd behaviour to influence individual decisions by displaying metrics about other users’ activities.
  • Prevalence: Used by 21.5 percent of the platforms.
  • Impact: Encourages users to sign up or upgrade based on perceived popularity, rather than individual need.

5. Interface Interference:

• • Trick: This broad category includes pre-selecting more expensive options, using visual hierarchies to promote certain choices, and employing emotionally manipulative language (“confirmshaming”).
  • Prevalence: Found in 22.5 percent (pre-selection) and 38.3 percent (visual hierarchy) of cases.
  • Impact: Users are nudged towards making more costly or beneficial-to-the-business decisions without fully realising it.

Consumer Protection

The study, conducted as part of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network’s (ICPEN) annual review, underscores the need for increased consumer awareness and protection against dark patterns. With officials from 27 authorities across 26 countries participating, the research utilised dark pattern descriptions established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to assess the impact of these practices.