The Action Is Part of the Consumer Affairs Department's Efforts to Strengthen Safeguards Against Unfair Digital Trade Practices

The Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns Guidelines, 2023 identifies 13 types of deceptive designs, including false urgency, basket sneaking, subscription traps, drip pricing, confirm shaming and trick questions. The CCPA issued an advisory in June 2025 asking e-commerce platforms to conduct self-audits, and has since collected about ₹20 lakh in fines. Zepto Marketplace was fined ₹7 lakh for drip pricing and basket sneaking, while Physics Wallah was fined ₹5 lakh for a pre-selected ₹10 donation and mandatory personal information disclosure.

IndiGo replaced its "No I will take risk" opt-out message with a neutral one after confirm shaming complaints. BookMyShow removed a pre-ticked ₹1 contribution to BookASmile. Other penalties: FirstCry (₹2 lakh), PharmaEasy (₹1 lakh), McAfee (₹1 lakh), SpiceJet (₹1 lakh) and Anuj Jindal (₹3 lakh). All were directed to discontinue dark patterns.