The European Commission and national consumer protection authorities from 23 Member States, Norway and Iceland this week published the results of inspections of online shopping websites. This inspection covered 399 stores of online retailers selling products ranging from textiles to electronic equipment. It also focused on three specific types of manipulative practices. These are practices that are often known to push consumers to make choices that may not be in their best interests. We are talking about so-called "dark patterns". These include: fake timers; web interfaces designed to direct consumers to shop, subscriptions or other choices; and hidden information. The investigation found that 148 sites contained at least one of these three dark patterns.
Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said: “Our audit shows that almost 40% of online retailers rely on manipulative practices for exploitation consumers' weak points or deceive them. Such behavior is clearly inappropriate and contrary to consumer protection. Today, we already have binding tools to help solve such problems, and I call on national authorities to use their enforcement capacity to to take appropriate action and combating these practices. In parallel, the Commission is reviewing all of them regulations regarding consumers to ensure they are fit for the digital age, including to assess whether dark patterns are adequately incorporated.”
Consumers should be more careful
Managing Norwegian Office Consumer Affairs (Forbrukertilsynet) Trond Rønningen believes that the survey results show that many consumers should be more careful when online shopping.
- 42 websites used fake timers with deadlines for purchasing specific products;
- 54 websites referred consumers to certain choices. From subscriptions to more expensive products or delivery options, through their appearance or choice of language;
- 70 websites were found to hide important information or make it less visible to consumers. These included, for example, information related to costs delivery, product composition or availability of a cheaper option. 23 websites withheld information to trick consumers into subscribing;
- The review also included applications from 102 viewed websites , of which 27 also implemented at least one of the three "dark design" categories.
Next steps
The national authorities will now contact the traders concerned to correct their websites. They will take further action, if necessary, in accordance with their national procedures.
In addition to this review and as part of broader efforts at item combating 'dark patterns' to complement the work of the CPC network. The Commission will also contact online traders identified in the 2022 study. This study focused on unfair commercial practices in the digital environment to ask them to correct the problems identified here.
In addition, the Commission is collecting opinions on three related directives consumer protection. The Commission wants to establish whether they provide a high level of protection in the digital environment. There are the Unfair Commercial Practices Directives, the Consumer Rights Directives and the Unfair Contract Terms Directives. Public consultations last until 20 p.m February 2023 r.
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Source: European Commission
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