Neurowired: Dark patterns, neuromarketing

German court rules on Art. 25 DSA - dark patterns in the online booking process

Szilágyi Pál — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 17:13:27 GMT

Finally, a court judgment that gets it right. Not all dark patterns are prohibited, consumers are not stu**d and Art. 25 DSA does not apply where UCPD applies.

The Verbraucherzentrale Niedersachsen (…

Recent developments related to dark patterns and neuromarketing. 2025/2.

Sun, 04 May 2025 19:05:32 GMT

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Also check out our Notes here on Substack.

Books

Good books on the subject are rare. New book is coming out in August! We are looking forward to reading it from one of th…

Recent developments related to dark patterns and neuromarketing

Szilágyi Pál — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:30:27 GMT

Don’t forget to follow us on X.

Interesting stuff and papers

Did you know? Food categorization determines whether healthier food is inferred to be tastier or less tasty. Despite evidence that people b…

Recent developments related to dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 07:50:05 GMT

The European Commission published a review of consumer legislation, focusing on digital. The fancy name of it is Fitness Check of EU Consumer Law on Digital Fairness. The 218 pages long staff working…

Notino under investigation in Hungary for using dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 12:09:20 GMT

The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has opened an investigation against Notino, a beauty products operator registered in the Czech Republic. On its website and mobile app, the company allegedly…

How to present discounts to market the products more effectively?

Szilágyi Pál — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 07:11:53 GMT

A new study was just published looking at exactly that question.

The scenario is as follows: “Walking past the candy aisle in a grocery store, Charlie sees an attractive display for a brand of chocol…

Adverts of Nike and Sky prohibited

Szilágyi Pál — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 18:16:38 GMT

The ASA (The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. It applies the Advertising Codes, which are written by the Committees of Advertis…

Some recent developments on dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 16:16:53 GMT

There is not much happening on the regulatory front so this week we decided to have a quick look at what is happening all over the world on dark patterns.

An interesting article on the interaction of …

California privacy enforcement and dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 14:10:50 GMT

The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has issued an Enforcement Advisory (see link here) on the topic of dark patterns.

The CPPA defines dark patterns as follows: “Dark pattern” means a user…

The difficulties of communicating with consumers

Szilágyi Pál — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 06:55:35 GMT

Even in simple messages directed at consumers there are several elements which rely on psychology. (Even if it would be possible to frame all messages neutrally, would be that a world we would lik to…

Fake reviews banned by the FTC

Szilágyi Pál — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 06:44:27 GMT

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a final rule aimed at curbing deceptive marketing practices through the prohibition of fake reviews and testimonials. (here is the final rule)

The Rule…

Dark patterns in webapps

Szilágyi Pál — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 20:13:59 GMT

The ASCI Academy, a flagship program of the Advertising Standards Council of India, published a report recently about apps and dark patterns: Study of Deceptive Patterns in top Indian apps. The study…

The collective power of consumer consciousness

Szilágyi Pál — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 09:13:42 GMT

Belonging to a community is a very powerful force. There is endless research on the topic and several industries use this force in order to achieve certain goals.

Take for example the hospitality indu…

FTC et al. reviewing dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:01:11 GMT

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and two international consumer protection networks reviewed websites and apps, finding many use “dark patterns”—design techniques that manipulate consumers into act…

Back again.

Szilágyi Pál — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 20:08:32 GMT

We had a short break with the sub due to finalizing my new book on dark patterns and EU law (out late summer), but now we are back and will spam your inbox with news and analysis from the last few months.

Just a quick intro. The European Commission turned the page and sent a warning message to Elon Musk (X Corp.).

The full statement of the European Commission can be read here: Commission sends preliminary findings to X for breach of the Digital Services Act.

The relevant part is this: “First, X designs and operates its interface for the “verified accounts” with the “Blue checkmark” in a way that does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users. Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a “verified” status, it negatively affects users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the “verified account” to deceive users.”

The statements of the European Commission are very blurry for several reasons. First, the verified status really means verification in case of X. If you have obtained recently a blue checkmark, you not only pay (and verify by using a credit card), but you really have to go through several verification steps. Even if you modify your profile later you lose your verified status until you get checked by X.

Second, in this sense users are consumers under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. If so, according to Art. 25 the UCPD shall take precedence, which means that national authorities have competence, not the European Commission.

The use of empathy gap

Szilágyi Pál — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 11:24:44 GMT

The "empathy gap" refers to a cognitive bias where individuals struggle to understand or predict their own and others' feelings and preferences when in a different emotional or physical state. This gap can occur in two main directions:

Hot-to-Cold empathy gap: When people are in an intense emotional state (the "hot" state), such as anger, excitement, or hunger, they often can't accurately predict their own or others' preferences in a calm or neutral ("cold") state. For example, when someone is very angry, they might overestimate the severity of a response they would consider appropriate, which might seem unreasonable once they have cooled down.
Cold-to-Hot empathy gap: Conversely, when people are in a calm or unemotional state (the "cold" state), they often fail to understand the intensity of their own or others' decisions or reactions when in a more emotional or distressed ("hot") state. For example, it can be hard for someone who is currently calm to understand why they previously made an impulsive purchase or decision while feeling stressed or excited.

The empathy gap has significant implications in various aspects of life, including:

Amazon fined in Poland for using dark patterns

Szilágyi Pál — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:05:30 GMT

The Polish competition authority fined Amazon for several practices which were unfair commercial practices according to the authority. Some of these were also called dark patterns in the press release (unfortunately no English version of the decision is available). Here is the statement from the press release:

“Consumers were misled by false information about product availability and delivery times. This is an unlawful practice of dark patterns. Upon order placement, a countdown timer may be displayed indicating when the product will reach the consumer, as long as they place the order with a certain time limit. The number of available items is also presented for some products (e.g., available items: 2; “Order within 2 hours 38 min.”). Information conveyed in this way puts pressure on the consumer to place an order as soon as possible to guarantee that they will receive the product. As the investigation has shown, Amazon fails to meet these deadlines for some orders. Shipping of some products is not possible or may be delayed, e.g., due to the fact that they are out of stock. Amazon treats the data it provides on availability and shipping date as indicative information, but the way it is presented does not indicate this. Consumers can only find out about this in the platform's terms of sale.

“Information about the availability of a product and its fast shipping is very valuable for consumers and for many people it can be the main reason why they make a purchase decision. However, such information must not be a decoy. If a trader gives a specific delivery date, they must meet it. This practice by Amazon is categorised as ‘dark patterns’, as it uses pressure to make the consumer order the product as soon as possible”, says UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny.”

We have once covered the FOMO (fear of missing out) / scarcity effect (see here).

The "Fear of Missing Out" (FOMO) heuristic is a psychological phenomenon where individuals experience anxiety or apprehension over the possibility of missing out on rewarding experiences that others might be having or missing a good opportunity. This heuristic plays a significant role in decision-making processes, often driving individuals to take actions that they believe will prevent them from missing out on something important or enjoyable.

Dark patterns everywhere. Part 5.

Szilágyi Pál — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:35:12 GMT

Like we have repeatedly stressed, dark patterns regulation seem to be nowadays everywhere. The most recent example is the 2024/900/EU regulation on the transparency and targeting of political adverti…

GVH takes action: competition proceedings against Temu

Szilágyi Pál — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 10:05:15 GMT

Online marketplace might have used non-existent discounts, psychological pressure and misleading green messages

Budapest, 13 March 2024 - The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) is launching a compe…

Fonts sell, especially if vintage

Szilágyi Pál — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:12:01 GMT

A recent study evaluated the effects of fonts on buying behaviour of consumers. The article delves into the relationship between vintage typography and consumer perceptions of product safety. The res…