The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulating entity in the advertising industry, intends to broaden its code to address what it terms as ‘dark patterns’ in online advertising, aiming to safeguard Indian consumers from deceptive online messaging.

Presently, ASCI’s advertising code encourages companies and brands to practice self-regulation, emphasizing the necessity for ads to be legal, decent, and truthful. As a self-regulatory body, ASCI handles complaints against ads that are deemed dishonest, offensive, harmful, or unfair to competition. In a white paper unveiled on Thursday, ASCI defined dark patterns as online user interfaces designed to deceive or manipulate users into making choices that are against their interests, such as purchasing a more expensive product, paying more than initially disclosed, sharing data, or making decisions based on false or paid-for reviews.

E-commerce companies invest substantial amounts in designing user interfaces and navigation paths to enhance business. However, ASCI points out that when these practices guide consumers towards choices that are detrimental to their interests, a boundary is breached.

The council plans to encompass such dark patterns under four categories: Drip Pricing, Bait and Switch, False Urgency, and Disguised Advertising. In Drip Pricing, ASCI addresses the issue where only a portion of a product’s price is revealed to the buyer until they reach the payment page, creating confusion about the final price and leading to a misleading representation. ASCI recommends that quoted prices should include non-optional taxes, duties, fees, and charges applicable to all or most buyers.

ASCI is also advocating for transparency in other methods employed by online brands and sellers. Bait and Switch, as the name implies, involve users being presented with an outcome they did not anticipate after taking an action. For instance, a consumer might choose a product at a certain price but is then only able to access it at a higher price. False Urgency, as highlighted by ASCI, emphasizes that companies should not declare or imply that the available quantity of a particular product is more limited than it actually is.