These deceptive tactics are integrated into websites and apps. Dark patterns manipulate the choice architecture of a website to hinder consumer choices, rather than streamlining the decision making process. 

In today’s digital landscape, businesses wield unprecedented control over their interactions with consumers, using sophisticated personalisation techniques to engage and manipulate users.

This comes out of a recent study published in the Cambridge University press, which shows how organisations sometimes exploit various aspects of human psychology, leaving consumers feeling trapped.  

These actions have not gone unnoticed by regulators. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission investigated Amazon’s alleged use of dark patterns to enrol customers in its Prime service, making it challenging to cancel it. 

While Amazon disputed these claims, it remains clear that the investigation underscores the urgency in addressing this issue. 

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has established guidelines to safeguard consumers from these tactics in the financial services industry. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has also launched an investigation into dark patterns. In an open letter, they cautioned businesses against using what it calls “harmful online choice architectures.”

While regulators primarily focus on dark patterns as tactics to extract money and personal information from users, concerns have been raised about the potential psychological harm and loss of freedom associated with online services.

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To address these concerns, researchers are using behavioural science insights to identify the core processes of dark patterns, and developed a framework to describe the most prevalent strategies.

The main framework includes “detours,” which delay and distract users with excessive actions, “roundabouts” designed to bore and frustrate, and “shortcuts” that offer seemingly easy but potentially costly choices.

As regulators continue to develop new tools for consumer protection, this effort aims to empower consumers to identify and combat dark patterns on their own.