India’s antitrust watchdog is focussing on “dark patterns” used by BigTech to mislead customers. On Friday, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) chairperson Ravneet Kaur said that even though the entire focus in the AI space is around deepfakes, but there are also cases of dark patterns. “We are looking at how dark patterns influence the conduct of digital companies and how people can be conditioned to make certain choices in the online space. We are also looking at algorithm collusion,” she said.
The CCI is currently in the process of finalising an agency to conduct a market study on artificial intelligence and competition. “We will be shortly finalising the agency,” Kaur said.
The dark patterns are defined as unlawful patterns that trick or manipulate users to share sensitive information or make choices they would not otherwise have made and that may cause harm. Last December, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) identified and banned 13 dark patterns employed by e-commerce websites in India, including false urgency, forced action, subscription trap, bait and switch, disguised ads, nagging and trick question.
In addition, the CCPA reportedly issued notices to Amazon for using dark patterns to manipulate users into subscribing to its Amazon prime membership.
Kaur said that over the past one year, the competition regulator has been busy implementing a bunch of amendments into the Competition Act, 2023. “These are large-scale amendments. These changes were made so that the competition act remains robust and address the challenges. We want to build a trust-based regime which is transparent, clear, and provides regulatory certainty,” she said.
The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 introduced a series of changes, including adding DVT (deal value threshold) as a new category to determine whether a deal comes under the CCI’s jurisdiction. The amendments reduced the overall merger review timeline from 210 to 150 days. Besides, the erring parties are now allowed to either settle or voluntarily undertake certain commitments to resolve cases in a jiffy.
Kaur said that the CCI will be looking at two aspects going forward. “The first is advocacy which is to get the message across to everybody on the changes made and the objective of these changes. The other is capacity building within the organisation,” she said.
