Advertising body norms target online deceptive design patterns

Amid proactive attempts by the government to curb the practice of deceptive design tricks or dark patterns, which is rampant on online platforms, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Thursday released guidelines to tackle the issue of dark patterns in online advertising.

The guidelines, which will come into effect from September 1, cover advertising in digital media including e-commerce, food delivery apps and websites and aims to check the menace of disguised ads and ambiguous pricing, among others.

In order to make the pricing of listings of varied products and services on online platforms transparent for consumers, the norms require quoted prices in advertisements and e-commerce sites to specify non-optional taxes, duties, fees and charges that apply to all or most buyers.


This has been done to prevent drip pricing, a practice wherein elements of the prices are not revealed upfront and the total price is only revealed at the end of the buying process. “This creates ambiguity around the final price as well as prevents easy price comparisons,” the guidelines stated.

An ad or element of an ad, which implies one outcome based on the consumer’s action but instead goes on to serve an alternate outcome, will also be considered misleading, ASCI said.

To put it simply, practices covered under such kind of a ‘bait and switch’ mechanism would include an instance wherein a consumer selects a product at acertain price but is able to access the same product later at a higher price.

To check the menace of disguised ads, the guidelines mandate content like influencer posts and paid reviews to clearly outline their content is advertorial in nature.

“Stating or implying that quantities of a particular product or service are (eg, airline seats available at a certain price) more limited than they actually are would amount to misleading consumers,” according to the guidelines.