MC Exclusive | Government body pulls up Amazon India for ‘dark’ practices forcing consumers to sign up for Prime membership

Amazon

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has sent notices to retail giant Amazon over the alleged use of dark patterns on its website to trick customers into purchasing an Amazon Prime membership, multiple sources have confirmed to Moneycontrol.

One of the notices, sent in the last week of November, was based on complaints received by the consumer protection body on Amazon’s prime subscription model. Moneycontrol has seen the notice.

Emails sent to Amazon on the issue remained unanswered till the time of publishing.

"..Amazon.in has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service (“Nonconsensual Enrollees” or “Nonconsensual Enrollment”)," the notice by the CCPA said.

The CCPA said in the notice that Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.

Also Read : What are dark patterns and why has the Indian government banned them

“While subscribing to amazon is an easy process, subscribing out of it is either impossible or extremely difficult, making it a type of unfair trade practice, bringing it under the purview of consumer affairs,” a senior official privy to the matter explained.

“While subscription gets added automatically or is advertised on the platform in bold letters, one really has to dig in if they want to cancel their subscription. It comes down to the number of steps and the complications in the process. While taking the subscription takes a single-click, cancellation requires at least 8-10,” the official added.

The centre, on December 1 came out with a set of guidelines targeted at the prevention and regulation of dark patterns in e-commerce.

The guidelines define a “subscription trap,” such as making cancellation of a paid subscription impossible or a complex and lengthy process; hiding the cancellation option for a subscription; forcing a user to provide payment details or authorisation for auto debits for availing of a free subscription.

The guidelines also address practices where a paid ancillary service, such as a subscription, has a pre-ticked box and gets automatically added to the shopping cart before checkout.

Amazon, as per official sources, has been found to be indulging in both the above, a "subscription trap" and pre-ticking, and a notice on the same has been sent to the company.

Also Read : Govt bans “dark patterns” on e-commerce platforms; notifies guidelines

As per another source, while the Consumer Affairs ministry had asked Amazon representatives to appear for a hearing on December 12, the latter asked for an extension, which was granted. The meeting will now take place in the first week of January.

“We haven’t heard them yet and would like to give them a chance to explain. A meeting in this regard had been set for December 12 but has been postponed after they requested it. While we are yet to finalise an exact date, the meeting should take place in the first week of January,” the source quoted immediately above said.

Similarly, another source aware of the ongoing discussions told Moneycontrol that Amazon is allegedly using dark patterns such as forced actions, interface interference, misdirection, and confirm-shaming, amongst others on its website.

"The company (Amazon) is also making some products only available on delivery if a user subscribes to its Prime membership," the third source said.

Forced actions are when a company forces customers who aren’t members of Prime to choose whether to enroll in the program before they can finish their purchase.

Interface interference is when a company manipulates the user interface in ways that privilege certain specific information relative to other information.

Misdirection is when the design element of a website focuses consumers’ attention on one thing to distract from another

Confirm-shaming is when companies use special words and phrases that guilt-trip consumers against canceling their membership.

He added that while the issue of using dark patterns has been discussed internally at the Indian head offices of Amazon following a crackdown by the US authorities earlier this year, the company continues to use dark patterns on its website in India.

In June the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon.com of enrolling millions of consumers into its paid subscription Amazon Prime service without their consent and making it hard for them to cancel.

Amazon has used "manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as 'dark patterns' to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions," the FTC had said.

As per the FTC, Amazon Prime is the world's largest subscription programme, generating $25 billion in revenue annually.

Multiple sources, including both government officials and industry insiders, told Moneycontrol that Amazon allegedly entices customers with appealing options such as lower resubscription rates, one-time rates, and options to renew their subscription through partner platforms when users try and end their Amazon Prime Subscriptions.