Picture a product page in the middle of a festive sale. A red banner says "Offer ends in 09:59". When it reaches zero it quietly starts again at 09:59. Underneath, a label says "Only 2 left!" on every size. Further down, an insurance add-on sits already ticked in the cart. None of this is subtle once you see it, and India's consumer regulator has a name for it: dark patterns.
What India's rules say
The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued its Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns in 2023. They list 13 practices. Outlook Business names several: basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced actions, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, subscription traps, false urgency and disguised advertisements.
In June 2025 the authority issued an advisory telling all e-commerce platforms to run a self-audit within three months and encouraged them to submit declarations that they were free of dark patterns. The Tribune reported that 26 platforms, including Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, Meesho, BigBasket, MakeMyTrip and Ajio, had declared themselves compliant. It also reported the authority's statement that monitoring would continue and that it was "closely watching platforms that have not yet submitted audits and would act against companies found violating the guidelines."
The Internet Freedom Foundation, in its critique of the advisory, pointed out that penalties are undefined and that self-audits have no independent oversight. So the rules exist, but how hard they bite is still unclear. I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I could not open the government's own text, so check the exact definitions on the Department of Consumer Affairs site before changing legal copy.
Six patterns a sale page drifts into
1. False urgency
A countdown that resets, or "selling fast" on stock that is not selling fast. Build instead: a timer driven by a real end time on the server, and wording like "Sale ends Sunday 18 October, 11:59 pm" that stays true on every visit. Show stock labels only from live inventory.
2. Drip pricing
The price reads ₹999 on the product page, then packing, handling and convenience fees appear at the last step. Build instead: show the full price early and itemise charges on the product page.
3. Basket sneaking
Insurance, a donation or a paid add-on is already in the cart. Build instead: add-ons start off, and the user opts in.
4. Confirm shaming
The decline button says "No thanks, I don't like saving money". Build instead: neutral labels such as "No, thanks" with the same size and contrast as the accept button.
5. Subscription traps
A free trial that renews without a clear reminder, with the cancel link buried three screens deep. Build instead: cancelling should be as easy as signing up, with a reminder before the first charge.
6. Interface interference
A large bright "Accept" beside a tiny grey "Decline", or a close icon that is almost invisible. Build instead: give the choices equal visual weight, and make sure the close control passes contrast checks.
Beyond the six
The list of 13 also includes forced action, where something unrelated is required to continue, and nagging, where the same pop-up keeps returning. Others are bait and switch, trick questions, SaaS billing and rogue malware. The full definitions are in the guidelines themselves. If your site has an app-install prompt that reappears on every visit, or a sign-up box that returns after every dismissal, it belongs in this audit too.
A before and after you can picture
Before: a bright red banner across the top reading "Hurry! Ends in 09:59", a yellow badge saying "Only 2 left", and a large green "Add protection plan" button, already highlighted, beside a faint grey "Skip".
After: a calm line, "Sale ends Sunday, 11:59 pm", a stock note only when inventory is truly low, and two buttons of the same size and contrast: "Add plan" and "No, thanks". The second version pushes a little less, and it is a lot easier to defend if anyone asks how it works.
A one-afternoon audit
Walk the flow from product page to payment, and screenshot every screen.
For each timer, check what happens when it hits zero. If it restarts, it is not a deadline.
Look at the default state of every checkbox and toggle in the cart.
Read each decline button aloud. If it sounds like an insult, rewrite it.
Compare the price at the product page, the cart and the payment step. It should not climb.
Try to cancel something you just bought, and count the taps.
Keep your findings and fixes in one document, so your team can show what it checked and when.
Honest urgency is allowed
The point is not to ban deadlines. A real deadline is information: the sale does end, the stock does run out. A fake one is pressure. The test is whether the number on screen would still be true if the shopper checked tomorrow.
There is a practical case too. Sale season is when you ask the most of a shopper's trust, and trust is hard to win back once a price jumps at checkout. Clear pricing and honest timers cost very little to build, and they hold up if a regulator or a customer asks questions later.
The takeaway: this week, pick the one page that gets the most sale traffic and run the audit above. Fixing a single reset timer or a pre-ticked box is a better use of an afternoon than a redesign.
