Choice or Coercion by Design? A Doctrinal and Empirical Analysis of Dark Patterns in Indian E-Commerce

Author

S.DEVA ARPUTHAN


Abstract

 The interfaces on which Indian consumers transact business are increasingly designed to steer behaviour, and the size of e-commerce market has grown at a rapid rate. In this paper, the author(s) question whether consumer purchasing on e-commerce platforms in India occurs as a result of their own choice or manipulation by the dark pattern. This includes an analysis of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 and the latest orders of the Central Consumer Protection Authority alongside a secondary study which is based on a triangulation of platform audits, consumer surveys and experimental literature. The authors argue that while evidence of prevalence was strong, evidence of causal impact in India was thin; purchase decisions are not free but 'bounded choice'; the regime, while sound in design, is undermined by relatively weak penalties and reliance on self-declaration. It sets forth reforms and a primary research agenda.



Keywords

Dark pattern, deceptive pattern, consumer protection, e-commerce, Central Consumer Protection Authority, consumer autonomy.



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References


Cases

  • Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, (2017) 10 S.C.C. 1 (India).

Legislation and Regulatory Instruments

  • Consumer Prot. Auth., Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 (Nov. 30, 2023) (India).
  • Consumer Protection Act, 2019, No. 35 of 2019 (India).
  • Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 (India).
  • Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, No. 22 of 2023 (India).

Books

  • Harry Brignull, Deceptive Patterns: Exposing the Tricks Tech Companies Use to Control You(Testimonium Ltd. 2023).
  • Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness(Yale Univ. Press 2008).

Journal Articles

  • Terry Hutchinson & Nigel Duncan, Defining and Describing What We Do: Doctrinal Legal Research, 17 Deakin L. Rev. 83 (2012).
  • Jamie Luguri & Lior Jacob Strahilevitz, Shining a Light on Dark Patterns, 13 J. Legal Analysis 43 (2021).
  • Arunesh Mathur et al., Dark Patterns at Scale: Findings from a Crawl of 11K Shopping Websites, 3 Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 81 (2019).

Reports, News and Online Sources

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