On Thursday 17 March, following a presentation by digital experts, MEPs on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) discussed “dark patterns”, which trick users, among others, into accepting the collection of data or remaining with a service for longer.
“It is about manipulation and commercial practices that rely on users being misled, and that even becomes fraud. I don’t understand why this is being done and I don’t see any reasonable reason, within Parliament, to go against a general ban on ‘dark patterns’”, said Martin Schirdewan (The Left, Germany).
While all of the MEPs on the IMCO Committee who spoke were in agreement that dark patterns were described by some as abusive and harmful, others called for a greater element of caution in their responses.
“The question arises as to where the line between right and wrong lies in terms of manipulation. It will be very complicated to implement the ban, to know where to stop and where to place the limit”, said Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech Republic).
An analysis shared by Adam Bielan (ECR, Poland), for whom the important thing regarding rules on dark patterns would be to avoid “hindering legitimate ways of using online services”.
Moreover, Kim van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA, The Netherlands) also questioned how to handle social networks, which are created and configured to be “as addictive as possible”.
On 2 March this year, some 72 European associations had called, within the context of the inter-institutional negotiations on the DSA (see EUROPE 12912/15) for the text to emphasise the ban on “dark patterns” (see EUROPE 12902/37). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)