CCPA Fines PhysicsWallah, McAfee for Using Dark Patterns on Their Platforms
CCPA has fined PhysicsWallah and McAfee for using dark patterns and directed both companies to discontinue the practices.
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The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has penalised edtech platform PhysicsWallah and cybersecurity company McAfee Software India for using dark patterns, interface design techniques that can nudge consumers into making choices they might not have otherwise made.
PhysicsWallah has been fined Rs 5 lakh and McAfee Software India has been penalised Rs 1 lakh, the regulator said in a statement. Both companies have also been ordered to stop the practices identified by the authority.
According to reports, the action has been taken under Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023.
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PhysicsWallah Under Scrutiny:
The CCPA said it took suo motu cognisance of certain practices on the PhysicsWallah platform and found three violations.
One of the key findings was about an automatic Rs 10 donation to the PW Foundation that was included in the payment amount at the time of checkout. The regulator said consumers didn't have to give express consent before the amount was added.
The authority also said that when users tried to remove the contribution, they were shown messages on children’s education, healthcare and marriages, which could possibly influence their choice to go ahead with the donation.
The regulator also looked at courses that were advertised as “free” but found that users had to give their mobile number and email address before they could access them. The CCPA said the course content was the same across user accounts, indicating that the collection of personal information was not needed to provide the service.
The authority highlighted that a significant portion of PhysicsWallah’s user base consists of students, including minors, making consumer protection concerns particularly important.
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McAfee Renewal Interface Questioned:
In another case, the CCPA looked into the subscription renewal process of McAfee Software India and found that consumers were given only two options, “Renew Now” and “Accept Risk”.
The regulator said the language framed the decision not to renew as potentially risky due to cybersecurity concerns even if the company could not show or guarantee such outcomes.
The authority also noted that the renewal option was more visually salient than the alternative and that this could have influenced consumer behaviour in the decision-making process.
Regulator Stresses Informed Consent:
Dark patterns are deceptive user interface techniques that can nudge consumers to make purchases, subscriptions or data-sharing decisions they did not intend to make, the CCPA said.
The authority said it had launched the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns in November 2023, declaring 13 of them as unfair trade practices.
Recently, the regulator led by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra had asked e-commerce platforms to self-audit and remove dark patterns from their services.
