An untraceable unsubscribe, an artificial countdown, a hidden paid option: “dark patterns”, or “deceptive interfaces”, are methods of consumer manipulation massively used by large platforms… completely illegally, because they harm our well-being and free competition.

Published on: 04/18/2026 - 09:58

A click that unknowingly subscribes you to a paid service; a piece of clothing added as a “suggestion” to your basket; a surprise extra cost for baggage when paying for a plane ticket… Why does simple Internet browsing so often resemble a game of hats? At issue are “dark patterns”, or “misleading interfaces”, according to the European formulation. Our online existence is paved with these methods of commercial manipulation, designed to encourage us to consume, to collect our personal data, or quite simply to capture our attention for as long as possible.

The expression was coined in 2010 by British web designer Harry Brignull, who now prefers to speak of "deceptive patterns". Having become an expert and consultant on the subject, he tells France 24 how he became aware of this dark side of digital architecture: "My job, at the time, was to identify the interface problems which were annoying people, which they were complaining about, and to inform my client of them. For example, the pre-checked option which subscribes people to a newsletter. Except that the client replied to me: 'In fact, we want to keep this option, it earns us money. money.' That’s when the wheels started turning in my mind. I understood that there was bad design, a source of bad experience for the user, which benefited the employer."

Some 97% of the most popular sites affected

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which devotes a long and damning report to them in 2022, these practices “undermine or reduce consumers' autonomy, their decision-making, or their choice. Often, they deceive, coerce or manipulate consumers and are likely to cause them harm, directly or indirectly.”

The principle: pushing the Internet user to spend more than they planned, to subscribe to a service that they neither need nor want, or to provide more personal data than necessary, through a series of more or less insidious incentives. Like these guilt-inducing messages when declining cookies, these artificial countdowns before a promotion expires, or these misleading announcements – “Only three more articles of this type!” –, which push you to rush the purchase.

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These techniques are widespread. A study by the European Commission reveals that in 2022, 97% of the 75 most popular sites in the European Union used at least one dark pattern: social networks, online sales platforms, influencer videos, but also generative artificial intelligence (AI)... Dark patterns are everywhere.

What remains of our free will in the face of these tactics? If they work, it is because they rely on our cognitive biases, these reasoning shortcuts which enter, unconsciously, into our decision-making when it is rushed. Like the conformity bias, which pushes one to align oneself with the actions of others, or the loss aversion bias, activated with these messages which claim that a promotion is ephemeral.

Increased anxiety and reduced free competition

In 2022, the OECD has documented the damage caused by these practices: an increased level of anxiety for consumers, faced with these perpetual traps, but more broadly, the erosion of free competition. “Where we think that competition between companies is beneficial, with more innovative products and better prices, they are content to have the best dark patterns,” laments Marie Potel-Saville, creator of Fairpatterns, an AI tool which aims to detect misleading interfaces.

European law attempts to abolish these digital shenanigans. Article 25 of the European Digital Service Act, adopted in 2023, prohibits any content which “deceives or manipulates the recipients of the service, by altering or compromising their autonomy, their decision-making capacity or their choices”.

Dark patterns are also contrary to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as explained by Audrey Pety, designer at the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (Cnil): "For the most part, 'dark patterns' contravene a certain number of major principles of the GDPR: consent, transparency of information, exercise of rights, protection of data from design and by default. And, above all, the principle of loyalty to the user, the way in which the architecture of choices is proposed to him."

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But for the platforms, this system proves too profitable to give up. “Since the pandemic, everything in our lives is tech, so these deceptive designs are everywhere today, and they are worse than ever,” notes web designer Harry Brignull. The reason is that companies have to make rational decisions in a competitive environment: if this company opposite uses deceptive designs and not us, we risk being at a disadvantage. And the practice carries little risk. Even if European laws are ahead, you only have a handful of regulators. How to control everything?

Legal victories against the platforms

However, the platforms' opponents are starting to achieve some victories. Amazon was caught with its hand in the jam pot: its devious subscription system to its paid “Prime” service was configured to be validated almost without the user's knowledge, as a “free” trial and very difficult to cancel. To avoid a legal conviction by a federal court in Seattle, Jeff Bezos' firm preferred to pay $2.5 billion to the US Treasury and to customers.

The ultra-fast-fashion giant Shein was caught by the French patrol. It must be said that the Chinese company combines dark patterns. Wheel of fortune, false promotions, automatic cookies… These last two practices earned it colossal fines from the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) and the CNIL, the French competition and personal data police.

More recently, a Los Angeles jury returned an unprecedented verdict against Meta and YouTube, found guilty of negligence for not having sufficiently warned about the risks of addiction that their designs pose among young people. Infinite scrolling, autoplay of videos: devices that the American court deemed likely to encourage unease among adolescents, on the front line in the face of this cognitive strike force.

Also read: Ban on social networks for minors: what is France proposing?

Less profitable tactics

The stick on one side, pedagogy on the other: opponents of dark patterns advocate the dual method. Like Marie Potel-Saville, the creator of Fairpatterns, whose AI tool for detecting misleading interfaces aims to facilitate legal recourse, but also to support companies wishing to return to more ethical practices. “Some people realize that dark patterns are less profitable than before,” she describes. “Users end up noticing that it’s suspicious that 45 people are looking at this room at the same time as them… The value of the brand is affected.”

The CNIL Digital Innovation Laboratory (Linc) has designed Deceptive Appearances, an awareness quiz for the general public, but also a range of tools aimed at those primarily concerned, those who build these user journeys. Its goal: to encourage an ethical and readable architecture of our online experiences. Because "we do not teach the protection of personal data in design schools. Our educational objective is to provide turnkey tools and information to practitioners, and to teachers, tools for their students, in order to promote good practices and avoid bad ones", explains Audrey Pety, designer at Linc.

Harry Brignull believes that over time, European standards end up having some success. "If we look at cookies, just a few years ago, it was very common not to be able to reject them. You had to navigate a maze of menus, click 1,000 times, etc. It was quite obvious that this design was aimed at circumventing the GDPR. But today, in most cases, you have a fairly clear 'decline cookies' button." He sees in this result the combination of legislation and digital education of users. But advocates more mature regulation for tech, which does not leave Internet users on the front line to sort themselves out.

“We have the right to expect that digital environments are free from traps and cognitive biases on an industrial scale,” insists Marie Potel-Saville. “We would not put on the market a car that fry the brains of its occupants.”

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