The European Commission has just published an edifying and instructive report on the techniques of online merchants to encourage visitors to make thoughtless purchases. An excellent tool to thwart manipulation techniques.
When Internet users make purchases online, they sometimes – if not often – end up with a paid option discreetly added to the end of their order or receive a guilt message when they refuse a reduction. These manipulation techniques, known as dark patterns, are used to influence consumer behavior to the advantage of sites and merchants (see our article). The goal ? Entice them to buy, make them pay more, or quietly subscribe to paid options. The European Commission has looked into the matter and has just published the results of a major studycarried out with the help of the national consumer protection authorities of 23 Member States, Norway and Iceland, on the “retail websites”.
Online commerce: three recurring manipulation techniques
She became interested, in the context of one of her many operations “broom strokes”, in the case of 399 e-commerce stores via their sites accessible from a Web browser and 102 of their applications. Result: 148 sites use at least one of the three manipulation techniques that were targeted by the European Commission. According to Didier Reynders, the justice commissioner, “Our review reveals that nearly 40% of online shopping sites rely on manipulative practices to exploit consumer vulnerabilities or trick them.”
The first manipulation technique regularly used by e-commerce platforms pushes Internet users to purchase by making them believe that they will miss out on an item or an opportunity if they take too long to place an order or to book the service. This is the case with fake countdowns that make you believe that you absolutely have to order now in order to save money, while “promotions” are displayed and can be used permanently, without time limit. In the same vein, some platforms, in particular accommodation sites such as Booking, regularly specify that a room has just been rented or that a rental is particularly popular, with phrases such as “Only 3 hotel rooms left at this price”. For sales sites like Etsy, these are more messages like “Please note, there are only 5 items left in stock”. The goal ? Put pressure on the consumer who, seeing this type of message, will prefer to buy or reserve immediately for fear that the offer or the product/service escapes him.
Another technique, which was used by 54 of the 399 online stores: “visual presentation or wording” intended to guide consumer choices, in particular via subscriptions to more expensive formulas or products, or delivery options. For example, when the customer is about to buy only one product, the platform offers him a delivery “free” but “for just a few euros more”. This is also the case when, at checkout, the merchant slips a subscription to an option – which later turns out to be paid – between two stages of the procedure – Amazon does not deceive anyone with its Prime delivery.
E-commerce: immoral sales techniques
The survey also shows that 70 of the e-commerce platforms go so far as to conceal important information or make it as invisible as possible so that it does not dissuade consumers from making their purchase. Thus, the European Commission notess “information relating to delivery costs, the composition of the products or the availability of a less expensive option”. We can cite the recent case of the various Netflix subscriptions which, when selecting its offer during registration, omits to offer the Essential subscription at 8.99 euros in favor of the Essential offers with advertising (at 5.99 euros) and Standard (at 13.49 euros) – there is still a difference of 7.50 euros between these two…
The European Commission intends not only to note these various problems, but also to take action. “Today, we already have binding tools to help solve these problems and I invite national authorities to use their law enforcement capacities to take appropriate measures and fight against these practices,” says Didier Reynders. Under the coordination of the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) network, the national authorities will contact the operators concerned to rectify their website, failing which they will take additional measures. In the meantime, there are always techniques to apply to avoid being fooled by the various manipulations of e-commerce sites (see our practical sheet).