Govt asks ecommerce firms to create a self-regulatory framework to end ‘dark patterns’

The government has taken a serious note of ‘dark patterns’ and asked e-commerce firms to create a self-regulatory framework to stop such practices, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Singh on Tuesday said. The e-commerce sector has the largest contribution to dark patterns, and the framework will be created in the next two months, Singh told reporters here after a stakeholder meeting.

Dark patterns refer to practices which deliberately exploit the consumers on the internet, like adding items to a shopping cart even though a user has not opted for it, changing the price of a product at the time of checking out or even creating a false sense of urgency to advance a buying decision.