Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution will address growing consumer concerns regarding “dark patterns” in e-commerce through a high-level stakeholder meeting scheduled for May 28, 2025, in New Delhi. The meeting aims to find more effective solutions to curb these deceptive user interface designs.
The Department of Consumer Affairs is bringing together major players from various e-commerce sectors, including food (BigBasket, Swiggy, Zomato, ONDC), travel (MakeMyTrip, Paytm, Ola, Yatra, Uber, EaseMyTrip, Clear Trip, IndiGo Airlines, xigo), cosmetics, pharmacy (1mg.com, Medika Bazaar, Netmeds), retail (Reliance Retail Limited), clothing, and electronics (Amazon, Flipkart, Apple, Meesho). Social media giant Meta and online marketplace IndiaMart are also among the key participants.
The meeting will also see active participation from key industry organizations, Voluntary Consumer Organizations (VCOs), and leading National Law Universities (NLUs), whose insights and regulatory perspectives are expected to provide valuable input in shaping robust and enforceable solutions.
The Department of Consumer Affairs has been proactively working to combat the unfair trade practice of dark patterns, which mislead or manipulate consumers into making unintended choices. Recognizing 13 prominent dark patterns in e-commerce in comprehensive guidelines issued on November 30, 2023, the Department has already taken significant steps in this direction. These identified dark patterns include False Urgency, Basket Sneaking, Confirm Shaming, Forced action, Subscription trap, Interface interference, Bait and Switch, Drip Pricing, Disguised advertisement, Nagging, Trick question, Saas Billing, and Rogue Malwares.
Among the Department’s initiatives is the Dark Patterns Buster Hackathon 2023, launched in collaboration with IIT (BHU), which invited students to develop technological solutions to detect and fight dark patterns. Building on this, the Department, in collaboration with IIT (BHU), launched three consumer protection apps on National Consumers Day 2024.
The Department emphasizes that consumer protection and ease of doing business are complementary goals and highlights this stakeholder meeting as an example of its progressive and participatory approach to governance. The Department aims to create a fair, transparent, and accountable digital marketplace where consumer safety is paramount by fostering public-private partnerships.
