Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha has acknowledged that the use of dark patterns on the company’s quick-commerce app was a “mistake,” following weeks of sustained criticism from users online. In a recent interview with Forbes India, the 23-year-old founder said the practices had been rolled back and attributed the reversal to consumer feedback rather than regulatory pressure.
Zepto dark patterns
Zepto had faced widespread backlash over hidden fees, selective pricing, MRP manipulation and allegedly misleading discounts. The criticism was significant enough to spawn an active Reddit community dedicated to flagging what users described as unethical app practices. Customers pointed to a long list of additional charges layered above the delivery fee — including a ‘Rain Fee’, a Rs 10 ‘Cash Handling Fee’, ‘Item Handling Cost’, ‘Convenience Fee’, ‘Small Cart Fee’ and ‘Processing Fee’, with GST applied on several of these.
Palicha said the company had experimented with various delivery fee and pricing models, but conceded that the response from consumers was largely justified. “A lot of it wasn’t received well on social media or by consumers, and honestly, much of the feedback was valid,” he said. The company subsequently reworked its pricing approach.
‘Nothing to do with government intervention’
“There wasn’t any regulatory angle to it—it had nothing to do with government intervention. We just felt it wasn’t the right thing for consumers,” Palicha said, adding that the rollback was voluntary. “Within 45–60 days, we had addressed it and moved on.”
While he described concerns about expired products as “blown out of proportion,” Palicha was unequivocal on the issue of dark patterns. “The dark patterns concern was something we genuinely could have solved—and we did. I’ll be candid: It was a mistake. We killed it. It won’t happen again,” he said. In early November, Zepto removed all handling fees, surge charges and convenience fees.
