The shadowy side of e-commerce

TAp a test, and groceries set ashore at your door. Tick a button, and a cabriolet arrives. Swipe compensate, and a world of entertainment unfolds. The interface is smooth, the experience seamless. But look closer, and you’ll notice something peculiar: a hand behind the curtain is constantly nudging you. Sometimes gently. Sometimes hard enough to tip you into decisions you didn’t know you were making. These design choices are called “dark patterns.”Earlier this week, union minister Pralhad Joshi, who oversees consumer affairs, told e-commerce platforms to get their house in order. Conduct internal audits. Weed out manipulative design. Or face action. This follows on the heels of last year’s guidelines by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which formally listed and defined what these dark patterns are. The message now is louder, sharper, and more urgent: no more trickery in the name of technology.But defining what specifically are “Dark Patterns” is where policy makers must begin with, points out Biju Dominic. He is one of India’s most thoughtful Behavioural Architects and Chief Evangelist at Fractal Analytics. His point is that persuasion has always been part of commerce. Brands are built on seduction. Creating urgency or nudging in the right place are what marketers have always done. And if a website says only two seats are left on a flight, and there really are only two seats left, that’s not deception. That’s fair warning. But the claim is false if thirty seats are still available. That’s fiction disguised as fact. That’s manipulation. That’s what needs to go. How do you ensure that? he asks. Also Read: Uber’s ‘Advance Tip’ feature lands it in trouble as CCPA issues notice. Internet drags Ola, RapidoAs things are, the CCPA has listed thirteen specific kinds of dark patterns. Some are almost comical in their audacity. There’s the sneaky add-on at checkout—the free sample you didn’t ask for; or the charitable donation you didn’t notice. There’s the emotional blackmail that makes you feel stingy for opting out of a newsletter. And then there are the frustrating subscription traps. Signing up is easy. Cancelling is a maze. Just try unsubscribing from one of those free trials. The button is always hidden, the steps always obscure.According to a 2024 report by the Advertising Standards Council of India, 52 of the top 53 most-downloaded Indian apps use at least one of these tactics. This isn’t marginal. It’s mainstream. Complaints have surged. Eleven platforms, including Uber, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, Zepto and Rapido, have already received legal notices. The government isn’t bluffing. It’s pushing for accountability.India isn’t alone. Europe’s Digital Services Act, now in full effect, bars online platforms from using deceptive design. California’s consumer privacy law says consent obtained through trickery isn’t valid. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Epic Games a massive $245 million for making it hard to cancel Fortnite subscriptions. Around the world, regulators are waking up to the same reality: clever design is not always ethical design.What’s at stake isn’t just the money lost in hidden fees. It’s something deeper. Dark patterns chip away at trust. They eat into our time, test our patience, and quietly erode confidence in digital platforms. The toll isn’t just financial. It’s psychological.But before we sharpen our pitchforks, it’s worth listening to Dominic again.He argues for a more nuanced take. Not all nudges are evil. Human beings, he reminds us, don’t make decisions as rationally as we think. Much of what we do is subconscious. So if a prompt nudges you toward a useful service, say, buying travel insurance, is that really wrong? What if it protects you? What if it helps?Dominic draws a line not by asking what the platform did, but by examining what it was trying to achieve. If the goal is to help, perhaps the nudge is justifiable. But if the tactic steers you into online gambling, or tricks you into sharing data, then it crosses the line. Intent matters. Context matters.Data collated from multiple sources that include the ‘Wall Street Journal’ indicates that digital businesses are under stress. Click-through rates have collapsed from 40 percent a few years ago to 0.035 percent now. Cart abandonment sits at 70 percent. In the U.S., 17 percent of sold goods are returned. In such a brutal environment, the temptation to do whatever it takes to sell is real.Also Read: E-commerce boosting MSME growthThe challenge then is to separate persuasive design from manipulative design. To accept that marketing isn’t the enemy, but bad faith is. That means regulators need to be sharp, consumers need to be awake. And platforms need to remember that trust is hard-earned and easily lost.Encouragingly, India is not just playing watchdog. It’s offering tools. The Jagriti App lets users report shady designs. The Jago Grahak Jago portal now gives real-time trust ratings for e-commerce platforms. And a new joint working group involving the government, companies, and consumer rights groups is looking to keep the conversation alive.This won’t end dark patterns. But it signals good intent. For every Indian consumer who has ever clicked in frustration, felt cheated at checkout, or been trapped in an endless unsubscribe loop, that would be welcome news.