India Fines PhysicsWallah and McAfee for Dark Patterns

India's consumer watchdog has fined edtech firm PhysicsWallah and cybersecurity company McAfee. They were found using deceptive interface designs, known as dark patterns. These tricks manipulated users into unintended actions. PhysicsWallah faces a Rs 5 lakh penalty, while McAfee is fined Rs 1 lakh. Both companies must immediately remove these practices from their platforms.

New Delhi: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has penalised edtech firm PhysicsWallah and cybersecurity company McAfee Software India for deploying deceptive interface designs commonly known as "dark patterns" that manipulated users into actions they did not intend to take.

PhysicsWallah has been fined Rs 5 lakh, while McAfee has been handed a Rs 1 lakh penalty. Both companies have been directed to remove such practices from their platforms immediately, the regulator said in a statement.

Dark patterns are user interface design tricks that nudge or coerce consumers into making unintended purchases, signing up for subscriptions, or surrendering personal data. The CCPA notified the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns in November 2023, identifying 13 such practices as unfair trade.

THE PHYSICSWALLAH CASE

CCPA took suo motu cognizance of the edtech platform's practices and found three violations.

During checkout, a Rs 10 donation to the PW Foundation was automatically added to the payable amount -- without explicit consumer consent. Users were then shown emotionally charged messages about children's education, healthcare, and marriages to discourage them from removing the donation.

Additionally, courses advertised as "free" required users to first share their mobile number and email address. The regulator noted that course content remained identical across accounts, suggesting mandatory data collection served no functional purpose.

Given that a significant portion of PhysicsWallah's user base comprises students, including minors, CCPA flagged heightened consumer protection concerns.

THE MCAFEE CASE

CCPA's examination of McAfee's subscription renewal interface found that users were presented with two options -- "Renew Now" and "Accept Risk" with no neutral alternative.

The framing effectively cast non-renewal as a reckless, security-threatening choice, a claim the company could neither justify nor guarantee. The renewal button also received greater visual prominence, further steering users toward continued subscriptions.

CCPA said the orders have been issued under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, and the Dark Patterns Guidelines, 2023.

CCPA, headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, issued an advisory as recently as June 5 asking e-commerce platforms to conduct self-audits and purge such practices."Consumer consent must always be explicit, informed and free from manipulative design practices," the authority stated.