Nasscom's feedback on the draft Guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns

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Nasscom's feedback on the draft Guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns

Garima Prakash

@GarimaP

October 31, 2023

Public Policy

On October 4, 2023, we submitted feedback to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) on the draft Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns (draft Guidelines).

Our submission started with an overall feedback on the approach to the draft guidelines. Key points from our submission:

Department of Consumer Affairs may consider issuing an internal guidance document, in consultation with the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on the factors to be considered while dealing with a situation under the draft Guidelines. For example, such factors could include: accrual of benefits to the consumer, intention in undertaking an alleged dark pattern, whether complaint by consumer was made in a truthful manner, efforts made by the online platform to resolve the complaint etc.
Periodic reviews and engagement with the industry should be organised in collaboration with industry associations to discuss and address genuine challenges that may be faced by the industry in complying with the draft Guidelines.
Given the binding nature of the Guidelines and the fact that whether a practice is a dark pattern, in many
instances, depends on the context and the intent, the industry has highlighted concerns that the guidelines could lead to frivolous complaints.
A transition time is desirable to ensure that the industry is able to comply with the new Guidelines.

We also made certain suggestions on the text of the draft Guidelines, with the objective of:

Making the draft Guidelines unambigous and clear; eliminating terms that may be ambiguous and replacing them with clear terms.
Ensuring that the draft Guidelines do not prohibit legitimate business practices that do not harm consumers per se.
Making the guidelines applicable to all relevant stakeholders, such as, endorsers (as the draft Guidleines would also apply to misleading advertisements which may be made by endorsers).
Adding appropriate illustrations, where needed.

Our submission can be downloaded from below. For more information, kindly write to garima@nasscom.in with a copy to policy@nasscom.in.

e-commerce dark pattern

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Garima Prakash

Manager, Public Policy and Government Affairs

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