E-commerce firms say compliant with dark pattern guidelines

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) said that 26 digital storefronts had declared, through their parent companies, that they had eliminated so-called “dark patterns” from their sites, or that they never had any to begin with. The storefronts that submitted such declarations include Flipkart, Meesho, BlinkIt, Zomato, BigBasket, and Reliance Retail.

Dark patterns are deceptive practices used online that are designed to trick users into spending when they otherwise wouldn’t, such as by creating “false urgency” or “basket sneaking,” by adding items by default into a user’s cart at the time of checkout, according to guidelines published by the CCPA, which comes under the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), in 2023.

Earlier this year, the DoCA doubled down on those guidelines, directing e-commerce platforms to submit self-audit reports on their operations’ compliance with the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023.

The disclosures made public by the CCPA do not include Amazon India, arguably the country’s largest e-commerce platform. Other firms the CCPA held consultations with whose disclosures weren’t sent in or uploaded by the CCPA include Airbnb, Apple, Ola Electric, Samsung, Indigo, Mastercard, Meta, Rapido, Shiprocket, Snapdeal, Uber, WhatsApp, Google and Paytm.

Firms owned by Wal-Mart or its subsidiaries, such as Flipkart, Cleartrip and Myntra, said in largely identical filings that they hired Deloitte India to audit their storefronts, and that they “remediated” any “potential and unintentional dark patterns” in recent months, along with a disclaimer that this self-audit declaration was not “an admission of liability, fault, or wrongdoing by any party in any manner whatsoever.”

Eternal Ltd., which owns BlinkIt and Zomato, submitted three-paragraph undertakings for both platforms which said that it “carried out an internal assessment of its platforms in line with the Advisory [which called for the self-audits] and the Guidelines … on a best-effort basis,” and that “this review indicates that [the storefronts are] materially compliant with the guidelines.”

Swiggy Ltd. said that its food delivery platform was “materially in adherence with the guidelines”. Medicine delivery firm 1mg said in its filing that it had conducted the self-audit, and that consumer choice was “central to our mission,” though it did not clearly specify what the audit had found.

Zepto Marketplace Pvt. Ltd. said that it “does not incorporate or deploy or encourage any dark patterns as defined under the … guidelines,” and that it “maintains ongoing monitoring and internal periodic checks of its Platform to ensure continued compliance.” BigBasket said that it had “implemented remedial measures for alignment with the requirements of the Guidelines.”

Sachin Taparia, who runs the polling startup LocalCircles, said that some of the firms’ declarations were, at least as of September 20, misleading. Mr. Taparia shared screenshots apparently showing that platforms like Flipkart and BigBasket did not clearly communicate that discounts were only applicable for limited units of certain products; added mandatory installation fees for some large appliances that were not part of the initial price displayed.