MC EXPLAINER Inside India’s ‘Black Friday illusion’: How fake discounts and dark patterns trick shoppers

New rules, a Rs 2 lakh penalty on FirstCry, notices to 11 platforms and 2,000+ fake sale sites show why India’s Black Friday-style discounts now come with a regulatory warning label.

On your screen, it’s 70% off.

On the bill, it’s often something else.

As India leans into Black Friday-style sales and year-round 'mega offers', regulators, cyber-security firms and consumer groups are all pointing to the same problem: a large chunk of the 'discount' is either built on inflated MRPs, hidden fees at checkout, manipulative design, or, in some cases, completely fake websites mimicking top brands.

This year alone, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined baby products platform FirstCry Rs 2 lakh for deceptive drip pricing, ordered all e-commerce platforms to self-audit for dark patterns, received self-declarations from 26 companies claiming to be “dark pattern free”, and watched complaints continue to come in.

At the same time, cyber-security firm CloudSEK has flagged more than 2,000 fake holiday-themed sale sites, many posing as Amazon or other global brands, built specifically to exploit Black Friday and festive season traffic.

Why this matters

For consumers, the illusion isn’t academic: it means overpaying for 'deals', getting tricked into higher final bills, or being pushed onto scam sites that steal card details. For honest sellers, fake discounts and dark patterns distort competition and train customers to distrust genuine pricing.

Why now?

The timing is not a coincidence. India’s festive and Black Friday-style sale window has become peak season for aggressive discounting and scam operations. In June 2025, the CCPA ordered all e-commerce platforms to complete a self-audit within three months to identify and remove dark patterns. By November, 26 big players had written in to say their interfaces are now clean, just as fresh scam data and user complaints suggest the ecosystem is still far from fixed.

This is no longer just a shopper-beware story; it’s a live test of whether India’s new consumer-protection regime can keep up with digital retail tactics.

The MRP game: discounts on fantasy prices

One of the oldest tricks in the book is also the hardest to spot in a hurry: fake discounts on inflated MRPs.

Multiple consumer studies and market analyses have documented the pattern: a product’s 'original' MRP is pushed up, a bright '40–70% OFF' sticker is slapped on, and the selling price quietly returns to what it was before, or even higher than competitors.

Example:

Pre-sale: a gadget sells for Rs 799.
Sale week: MRP suddenly appears as Rs 1,999, 'special price' Rs 899 with '55% OFF' in big font.

On paper, you’re saving over Rs 1,000. In reality, you’re paying more than last month.

Consumer group CUTS International has flagged inflated MRPs and fake discounting on e-commerce platforms as a serious concern, arguing that such practices create a false perception of savings and mislead buyers, exactly the 'illusion' you want to frame in your story.

The catch: there is no official India-wide statistic on how common this is. What we have is case evidence, platform-level analyses and think-tank complaints, not a master government dataset.

The checkout betrayal: drip pricing and hidden fees

If the MRP game is about anchoring you to a bigger imaginary discount, drip pricing is about quietly raising the final amount after you’ve mentally committed to the purchase.

In September 2025, the CCPA fined FirstCry Rs 2 lakh for exactly this: the platform showed products as 'MRP inclusive of all taxes' but then added GST at checkout. The order called this 'drip pricing,' a banned dark pattern, and said it violated Rule 7(1)(e) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, which require displaying the total price inclusive of all charges and taxes upfront.

The same tactic shows up with 'convenience fees', 'handling charges', 'platform fees' and packaging add-ons that appear only at the last step. Collectively, they turn a 'steep discount' into a modest one, or none at all.

Dark patterns: how the interface hustles you

India is one of the first countries to formally define and ban a basket of 'dark patterns,' manipulative interface designs that push users into choices they may not have made with clear, neutral information.

The Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023, issued under the Consumer Protection Act, list 13 such patterns, including:

• False urgency: fake countdown timers or 'only 2 left' claims that don’t match real stock.
• Basket sneaking: adding products or donations to your cart without explicit consent.
• Bait and switch: promising one offer, delivering another.
• Drip pricing: hiding mandatory fees until the last step.
• Subscription traps and confirm shaming, which guilt or trick you into staying subscribed.

By November, the government said 26 leading e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms, including large marketplaces and travel and grocery players, had submitted self-declarations that their interfaces are now free from dark patterns.

But there’s a catch here too. MediaNama’s RTI-based reporting shows that only 18 of those self-audit filings have been made public so far, with gaps in how much detail is disclosed and how rigorously the claims can be verified.

In parallel, Internet Freedom Foundation and other digital rights groups say they continue to receive complaints about hidden fees, manipulative consent flows and confusing layouts, suggesting a clear tension between the platforms’ 'we’re clean now' claims and on-the-ground user experience.

Scam 'sale' sites: when the whole shop is fake

On top of questionable discount math and interface tricks, this Black Friday season has added an uglier layer: entire fake stores designed to harvest money and data.

CloudSEK reports uncovering over 2,000 holiday-themed fake online stores ahead of Black Friday, many impersonating Amazon and global brands using similar URLs and .shop domains. These sites often:

• offer 70–90% off on popular electronics and fashion
• use identical templates and phishing kits
• show fake urgency banners and limited-time offers
• redirect to shell payment pages that capture card details, UPI IDs or OTPs

India’s 'illusion' sits inside a global pattern.

US and European consumer reports this month are full of complaints about retailers quietly hiking prices before Black Friday and then promoting 'doorbuster' discounts based on the inflated base, a standard case of price anchoring.

Australia’s competition regulator has previously called out 'was/now' pricing and fake site-wide sale claims where only part of the catalogue is genuinely marked down.

The difference is that India is now putting specific legal names, false urgency, drip pricing, basket sneaking, on practices that shoppers everywhere have grumbled about for years.

What this means for you: seven quick checks before you click ‘Buy’

Track the pre-sale price

Search the product on multiple sites or price-trackers before the sale. If a “70% off” product is selling at roughly the same price as last week, the discount is mostly theatre.

Be suspicious of 'MRP inclusive of all taxes' + extra GST

If the site claims taxes are included but adds GST at checkout, treat it as a red flag. India already has a drip-pricing precedent in the FirstCry case.

Watch the fine print on ‘up to 80% off’
'Up to' often means only a handful of SKUs get that deep cut; the rest hover at modest discounts. Check actual product pages, not just banner claims.

Inspect the URL before entering card details

For Black Friday-style deals, type brand URLs manually or use official apps. Be wary of odd domain endings, misspellings or link-shorteners in ads and forwards.

Look for add-ons sneaking into your cart

Before paying, scroll through the cart to see if any warranties, donations, accessories or 'services' were auto-ticked.

Don’t let countdown timers rush you

If the same deal is still there after the clock 'expires' or reappears when you reload, it’s likely a false urgency nudge, not a real stock situation.

Prefer payment options with recourse

Credit cards and UPI apps with strong dispute mechanisms give you more room to fight fraud than direct bank transfers to unknown accounts.

For now, the story writes itself: the discounts are still loud, the legal language is finally catching up, and the burden of not getting fooled sits squarely with the person holding the phone.