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It’s not front-page news, like the CrowdStrike incident and the Snowflake hack, but it is pretty clear that deceptive design patterns have slowly become more commonplace when it comes to subscription services and non-subscription services alike.

The International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) recently conducted a sweep of 642 subscription service websites and found that more than 75% made use of at least one deceptive pattern and 67%made use of multiple deceptive design patterns.

Below are some of the most commonly seen examples of deceptive design:

Sneaking

During the purchase of a subscription, 81% deny the ability to turn off the auto-renewal of a subscription purchase and do not provide the date a customer needs to cancel to avoid being charged (again).

Other examples of sneaking include adding new, non-optional charges right before a purchase is complete and automatically renewing a subscription after a free trail without consent.

Interface Interference

38.3% of sites used a visual false hierarchy to prominently place a subscription that is more beneficial to the business, such as a more expensive subscription or a longer subscription period.

22.5% of companies that sell both subscription and non-subscription services had the subscription option pre-selected.

Social Proof

Nudging customers toward a purchase decision based on the alleged behavior of other consumers is known as Social Proof.  21.5% of businesses that sell both subscription and non-subscriptions products were observed using notifications of other supposed purchases and sign-ups to push consumers into making a purchase decision.

Forced Action

In at least 64% of the websites investigated consumers were required to provide information or perform an action to access functionality.  A great example of this is when a service or subscription requires your credit card information to be granted access to a “free trial”.

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Since our initial blog post,several well-known companies have been involved in legal battles and/or hit with fines and other penalties for the use of deceptive design – including AT&T, Epic Games, Amazon, Google and more.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to combat the rise of digital“negative option” marketing of subscription services and other manipulative tactics companies use to trick consumers into paying for products they do not want.

If you come across a deceptive design pattern you believe violates the law, you can submit a complaint by visiting the CFPB website as well as your state Attorney General’s office.  

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