Most of our readers probably have already seen this news, but it is still interesting to address it: Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Amazon for the use of dark patterns/manipulative practices in its practices related to subscription (and its cancellation) to Amazon Prime (see FTC Takes Action Against Amazon...). Whilst this case plays out in the US, it will be fascinating to follow it and learn from it for European academics and enforcement authorities alike.
The topic has been alive in the European academia, amongst the consumer protection and market authorities and policymakers for a few years now (see the recording of the debate on dark patterns as a challenge to online consumer protection, held during the Internet Governance Forum 2022, in which I took part, here). On EU level, in 2022, the EDPB issued Guidelines 3/2022 on Dark patterns in social media platform interfaces (see here). The European Commission addressed the issue of data-driven practices and dark patterns in its 2021 guidance to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (see here). The Commission indicated the applicability of the UCPD framework to combat such practices, when they apply to B2C relations. Yet, the Commission released results of a screening of retail websites in January 2023, which was conducted with the CPC Network, showing the prevalence of various manipulative practices online in the EU as well (see here). Clearly, more enforcement is needed, which highlights the importance of the FTC case.
The main charge against Amazon is that it knowingly, by use of 'online manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs', caused consumers to enrol in Amazon Prime, an automatically-renewing subscription service, without their consent. This was done, e.g. by making it difficult to locate an option to purchase a product on Amazon without subscribing simultaneously to Amazon Prime.
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| Image by Jo Justino from Pixabay |
