Dark Patterns — The 13 Tricks Apps Use on You Are Now Illegal in India
"Only 2 left!" (there are hundreds). A ₹99 delivery fee that appears at the last step. A donation pre-ticked in your cart. A subscription that took one tap to start and seventeen screens to cancel. These aren't sloppy design — they are dark patterns: interfaces engineered to make you spend more, share more, or stay subscribed against your intent.
In India, they are no longer just annoying — they're prohibited. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) notified the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023, naming 13 banned practices, and in June 2025 directed all e-commerce platforms to self-audit and eliminate them, following up through 2025-26 with notices to dozens of platforms. Penalties for misleading practices run to ₹10 lakh for a first offence and ₹50 lakh for repeats.
The 13 banned dark patterns — spot them by name
| Dark pattern | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| False urgency | Fake countdown timers, "only 1 left" stock lies |
| Basket sneaking | Items, insurance or donations added to your cart by default |
| Confirm shaming | "No thanks, I hate saving money" guilt buttons |
| Forced action | Must share contacts / buy a membership to complete a purchase |
| Subscription trap | One-tap signup, labyrinth cancellation |
| Interface interference | Bright "Accept all", hidden grey "Reject" |
| Bait and switch | Advertised item "unavailable", pricier substitute pushed |
| Drip pricing | Fees revealed step by step until checkout |
| Disguised advertisement | Ads styled as reviews, results or editorial content |
| Nagging | Endless popups repeating a request you declined |
| Trick wording | Double negatives engineered to confuse consent |
| SaaS billing | Silent auto-charges after free trials |
| Rogue malwares | Fake buttons/downloads that push malware or hidden charges |
Why this matters beyond irritation
Dark patterns quietly move money: sneaked add-ons across millions of carts, unnoticed post-trial charges, cancellations abandoned midway. Under the Consumer Protection Act framework, they are treated as unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements — which means you have remedies, not just frustration. Regulators have paired the 2025 self-audit advisory with a joint working group and enforcement notices; several major platforms publicly cleaned up checkout flows in response.
Your 4-step response when you catch one
- Screenshot immediately — the timer, the pre-ticked box, the fee that appeared at checkout. Dark patterns are easy to allege and easy to prove if you captured them.
- Reverse the damage: remove sneaked items before paying; for silent subscription charges, demand a refund in writing from the platform and simultaneously ask your bank to cancel the e-mandate (you can also manage UPI autopay mandates in your UPI app).
- Report it: call the National Consumer Helpline 1915 or file at consumerhelpline.gov.in naming the practice ("drip pricing", "subscription trap") — complaints tagged this way flow into the CCPA's enforcement pipeline.
- Escalate for your money: if you suffered a concrete loss and the platform won't remedy it, file at edaakhil.nic.in — our e-Daakhil guide walks through it. Claims up to ₹5 lakh carry no court fee.
Before paying on any app: scroll the cart for items you didn't add, compare the final amount with the advertised price, and read the button text you're about to tap. Ten seconds defeats ten designers.
Protect yourself by default
- Use UPI autopay / e-mandate dashboards in your payment apps to review every active subscription quarterly — silent renewals depend on you never looking.
- Treat free trials as billing events: set a phone reminder two days before every trial ends.
- Prefer "guest checkout" and deny contact/SMS permissions to shopping apps — forced data sharing is itself a listed dark pattern.
The bottom line
Design used to be the seller's home turf; now the 13 tricks have legal names and a regulator auditing for them. Learn the names, screenshot on sight, and use 1915 — every tagged complaint makes the manipulative checkout a little more expensive for the platform than the honest one. That's how the economics of dark patterns die.
How this guide is made
Written and fact-checked by the Awareness360 editorial team from primary sources — RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, the Income Tax Department and Government of India portals — with links to the originals in the text above. Last reviewed on 4 Jul 2026. This is general educational information for Indian readers, not professional financial, legal or tax advice.
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it — see our editorial policy.