Dark patterns at Amazon worthy of a Homeric epic? Surely not!
The Federal Trade Commission today filed a lawsuit against Amazon for what it describes as a «years-long effort to enroll consumers into its Prime program without their consent while knowingly making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions.»
In a highly redacted complaint [PDF] filed today in the Western US District Court for Washington state, The FTC accused Amazon of using so-called «dark patterns,» manipulative user interfaces that trick consumers into spending money, to fool consumers into enrolling in Amazon Prime.
The FTC also accused Amazon of building a Prime cancellation process designed not to help users cancel their membership, but to stop them.
«These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike. The FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from ‘dark patterns’ and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets,» FTC chair Lina Khan said of the suit.UK previously cracked down on UX
Reading through the portions of the case that aren’t redacted, it becomes pretty clear how similar the FTC’s argument is to a 2019 decision from the UK Advertising Standards Authority That similarly found Amazon had used some UI black magic to confuse users into signing up for Prime.
The ASA decided Amazon should be forced to change its UI to clarify purchase options that did and did not include a Prime membership, but no such decision has been handed down by the FTC yet, as the case was just filed today.
