New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on PhysicsWallah Limited for deploying dark pattern practices on its platform that allegedly misled consumers and influenced their decision-making process.

The consumer watchdog has also imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on McAfee Software India Private Limited for using misleading subscription renewal practices on its digital platform.

“PhysicsWallah has been fined Rs 5 lakh, while McAfee has been fined Rs 1 lakh. Both companies have been directed to remove such practices from their platforms and ensure that consumers are able to make informed choices without pressure or manipulation,” it said.

The action was taken under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, and the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023.

The CCPA, headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, said both companies have been directed to discontinue such practices and ensure that consumers are able to make informed choices without manipulation or pressure.

In the case of PhysicsWallah, the authority took suo motu cognisance of certain practices on the edtech platform and found that consumers were being influenced through interface designs that affected their ability to make free and informed decisions.

According to the CCPA, a donation of Rs 10 to the PW Foundation was automatically pre-selected during checkout and added to the total payable amount without obtaining explicit consent from consumers.

The authority also observed that users were shown emotional messages linked to children’s education, healthcare and marriages, encouraging them not to remove the donation option.

Further, courses advertised as “free” could only be accessed after users shared personal information such as their mobile numbers and email addresses.

During its examination, the CCPA found that the content available across user accounts remained identical, suggesting that mandatory collection of personal data was not essential for accessing the courses.

The authority identified multiple dark patterns on the platform, including “basket sneaking” through automatic addition of donations, “confirm shaming” through emotional messaging, and “forced action” by making users share personal information before accessing free content.

–IANS

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