We know that a lot of things have been going on in the e-commerce world and while most of them are in good spirits, we know that there are some bad actors out there as well who will do anything in order to lure their customers to maximize their revenue as much as possible, even if it means that they are literally trying to shame them into buying something. For example, there are terms like basket sneaking and confirm shaming that have been popular ever since e-commerce came into existence.
For example, if you have bought something from an e-commerce store and something was added to your cart which you don’t recall adding then that is called basket sneaking which is a fraudulent activity but it is happening on a large scale without any regulations. Apart from that, you might have noticed that you are confirm shamed when you buy something like a movie ticket or flight ticket. In case of a movie ticket, you will be asked to donate to the charity and it will be ticked by default. Now, you will be shamed if you want to untick it and same goes for flight bookings as well where they try to lure you to buy travel insurance which is ticked by default. Worst is when they give you the message saying “keep me uninsured” which is a terrible way of confirm shaming.
Looks like the Indian Governemtn, like many others, has finally decided to take action against such tactics and have asked for public comments on such cheap marketing tactics and is preparing a draft to stop these activities. As per a report, “Google, Amazon, and Facebook consulted on the draft guidelines, along with local e-commerce players Flipkart, RIL, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, and Tata. All appear to have agreed that dark patterns should be prohibited, and have defined ten practices they think should be out of bounds”. After the public comments period, the Indian Government will move these draft regulations into law as soon as possible. While India won’t be the first, it would be one of the biggest markets where this will take place.