Dark Patterns in Digital Platforms: Consumer Manipulation or Legitimate Business Strategy? Legal Implications under Cyber and Consumer Protection Laws

Dark patterns describe design practices in websites and apps that deliberately steer users toward actions they otherwise might not take. These practices often include hiding important information, misleading buttons, or presenting an option to opt-out in a way that is ambiguous or takes disproportionate effort that encourages the user to choose an outcome that benefits the platform or service and not the user. Some examples are commonly encountered in our lives using digital platforms: e-commerce websites will sneak charges at checkout and alter delivery dates if the customer does not overtly monitor it, social media platforms might make it difficult to configure privacy settings, and subscription services may use false prompts conveying misleading assignments for users to confirm auto-renewal.1 The importance of studying dark patterns is important because technology plays a role in everyday life. Everyday, users perform online tasks such as shopping, banking, entertainment, and communication potentially without realizing how design is invisibly shaping their decisions. By exploiting cognitive biases and human psychology through the use of dark patterns technology providers are profiting by, in essence, stealing informed consent;this raises significant ethical concerns and potentially legal dilemmas.2 This research aims to determine whether dark patterns are simply aggressive business tactics or whether they are manipulating the consumer in a manner that requires intervention. Our consideration will be entirely focused on India’s legislative framework, including the Consumer Protection Act and the Information Technology Act, 2000, along with learning from other parts of the world including the EU and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) practices.