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Instrument 54 | I. Consumer Protection / AI / Digital Markets

GUIDELINEBINDING GUIDELINE

Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023

Central Consumer Protection Authority under Section 18 Consumer Protection Act, 20192023Binding GuidelineConsumer

AI / PRIVACY / CYBER RELEVANCE

Relevant to AI-personalised interfaces, adaptive UX, recommender systems and behavioural optimisation.

AI: HighPrivacy: HighCybersecurity: Contextual

READ FIRST

  • Guideline 3 / definitions
  • Guideline 4 prohibition
  • Annexure 1 specified dark patterns

PURVIEW

Defines and regulates a range of dark-pattern practices that can distort or manipulate consumer choice in digital environments. The Guidelines are relevant to AI because automated personalisation, recommender systems, conversational agents and adaptive interfaces can scale manipulative techniques far beyond conventional static interfaces. From a data-protection perspective, profiling and behavioural data may power these systems, making consumer protection and responsible data use closely connected governance questions.

Classification and legal status. Binding guidelines within the consumer-protection field.

RELATED LINKS

CCPA - Self-Audit by E-Commerce Platforms for Detecting Dark Patterns, 2025Provides CCPA’s 2025 advisory encouraging e-commerce platforms to conduct self-audits for dark...Consumer Protection Act, 2019Provides the general consumer-protection framework governing unfair trade practices, misleading...CCPA - Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022Establishes specific standards for preventing misleading advertisements and regulating...
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Keywords

dark patternsconsent interfacerecommender systemsbehavioural design

Source note

Official Gazette G.S.R./CCPA notification dated 30 Nov 2023 verified.

Legal status indicates whether this resource is legislation, delegated regulation, regulatory direction, guidance, policy, research or technical material. Inclusion in this library does not by itself make a document legally binding.

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