Dark Patterns are now illegal in India

Here are some of the dark patterns that have been banned in India.

1. False Urgency: Online sellers create a sense of urgency with claims like ‘limited time offer’ or ‘only a few left’, pushing customers to buy quickly without much thought.

2. Basket Sneaking: Additional items/services get added to your online shopping cart by the seller without your explicit approval, often leading to unexpected costs.

3. Confirm shaming: Sellers use guilt or shame, suggesting you’re making a poor choice, to convince you to subscribe to services or make purchases you didn’t initially want.

4. Forced Action: To access a desired product or service, you’re compelled to perform unrelated tasks like signing up for newsletters.

5. Subscription Trap: Unsubscribing from a service is made intentionally difficult, keeping consumers locked into payments they no longer want.

6. Interface Interference: Websites use confusing or misleading designs to trick you into making choices you wouldn’t normally make, like hiding important options.

7. Bait and Switch: You’re lured with an offer for one product or service, but are then redirected to another, often costing more.

8. Disguised Advertisement: Ads are blended in with regular content, making it hard to tell the difference and misleading you about what’s an ad and what’s not.

9. Nagging: Constant and repetitive prompts or requests, like being asked to sign up for a newsletter repeatedly, can wear you down into agreeing.

The Indian government has specified that penalties for violations will be levied as per these guidelines.

source: https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/dark-patterns-are-now-illegal-in-india-6b3c35c5ce50