Regulating Dark Patterns in Digital Marketing: A Comparative Review of Consumer Protection under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the General Data Protection Regulation

Abstract

The present paper is a critical analysis of the regulatory framework of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, in India and the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union in terms of combating the widespread dark patterns in digital marketing. These misleading designs of user interface take advantage of cognitive bias and push consumers toward unwanted behavior such as unnecessary purchase or subscriptions, compromising consumer autonomy in the digital market. The linked comparison below will outline the differences in conceptual approaches to the manipulation immersed in the dark patterns of these two unique legislative tools across the data protection and consumer rights domains. Particularly, it will discuss the extent of harm as defined in each framework and evaluating their effectiveness in addressing individual and social evil that emerges out of such manipulative acts. In addition, the review will examine the extent in which the various laws define the term dark patterns and in what implementation contexts the different aspects of the laws address more than a mere violation of direct data privacy and exploitative business activities. This involves a review of the legal framework of each jurisdiction as it attempts to resolve the natural tension between the business attitudes of maximizing customer data and ticket taking through targeted advertising, and the need to protect consumer privacy rights. The discussion will go further to establishing possible loopholes or whereby regulatory convergence may benefit global consumer protection against these emerging digital-based threats, given the fact that the availability of exploitation, as a central concept, tends to remain untheorized in consumer law.