This product is almost sold out! Many people view this hotel! These are tricks with which websites want to manipulate visitors in such a way that they make a purchase or book faster. You can seduce, but you can’t deceive. That is why European supervisors are taking action against these so-called dark patterns.
“Websites sometimes deliberately withhold information or distort the facts,” explains professor of consumer law Charlotte Pavillon of the University of Groningen. “The ways to influence people with dark patterns are getting smarter.”
A hotel booking site that says a hundred people view a page is an example of one dark pattern. That makes people feel like they have to make a quick decision because it seems like the hotel is popular.
Information is deliberately withheld. It is not clear to the visitor that not everyone looks at the same booking period.
During an exploratory investigation, European supervisors have at least three dark patterns found. The authorities have announced that they will conduct a follow-up investigation.
Dark patterns lead to financial damage
“People keep going dark patterns making the wrong choices,” says regulator Dries Cuijpers of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). “This can lead to financial damage, because you buy something you don’t need or for which you pay too much.”
Making it unnecessarily difficult to cancel a subscription, for example, is an example of one dark pattern. Web store Amazon has been guilty of this in the past.
According to Cuijpers, people had to click 42 times if they wanted to cancel their Amazon Prime subscription. After action by the regulators, the subscription can now be terminated with two clicks.
Online stores earn more money thanks to dark patterns
Of dark patterns that Amazon used were very profitable. Some people found it so hard to cancel their subscription that they just stayed Prime subscribers. The web store giant then earned a lot of money from those customers.
In 2019, ACM will have a guideline published. Thuiswinkel.org, the interest group of Dutch webshops, uses this guideline.
Webshops that dark patterns bets do not receive a Thuiswinkel Waarborg certificate,” explains Vincent Romviel of Thuiswinkel.org. “Dark patterns are actually unfair commercial practices. They are prohibited by law. Online stores must also comply with the Dutch Advertising Code, which also describes misleading commercial practices.”
People are also influenced unnoticed in physical stores
But temptation and deception also take place in physical stores, according to Romviel. “Take checkout sales: for example, a store tries to sell a bar of chocolate. It is much more expensive at the checkout than elsewhere in the store. Is that really in the customer’s interest?”
Professor Pavillon applauds the fact that regulators are working against dark patterns. But at the same time, she says, it remains a game of cat and mouse. “By the time one trick has been acted upon, another more ingenious technique has already been invented.”
The way in which web shops respond to consumer behavior is one of ACM’s spearheads in 2023. The regulator has announced that it will conduct a follow-up investigation into Dutch web shops that use unauthorized manipulative techniques. This should make the internet a bit safer for online shoppers.
