Dark patterns: Digital design techniques have ‘infiltrated’ New Zealanders’ lives - and little action is being taken to stop them, Consumer NZ says

You’ve probably experienced dark patterns before.

Websites making it easy to start a subscription but tough to cancel, being told there’s “only three left” of an item so you feel a sense of urgency to snap it up or finding out there’s hidden costs for something you want online - making it more expensive than you thought.

Research shows dark patterns - digital design techniques intended to influence people’s behaviour when shopping online - is infiltrating New Zealanders’ lives and has become an “ubiquitous part of the online experience”, advocacy group Consumer NZ says.

“And little action is being taken to stop them," the group says.

“They can encourage consumers to make certain choices that aren’t necessarily in their best interests."

On Thursday, Consumer NZ released a report called Invisible Influence: Dark patterns and digital deception in Aotearoa New Zealand which looks into how online design practices can harm consumers.

In 2024 alone, New Zealand shoppers spent over $6.09 billion online.

As part of its research, Consumer NZ conducted a national survey involving 1502 participants who were asked about their knowledge of dark patterns and how these techniques influenced their lives. Consumer NZ also did one-on-one interviews with 10 participants from its mailing list.

It also conducted a sweep of local websites “to assess the patterns in action”, Consumer NZ says.

Dark patterns in Aotearoa

Consumer NZ found 10 major dark patterns in play in Aotearoa, which it says is used “extensively across some of the country’s most popular websites”.

Consumer NZ says these are:

• Subscription traps: When it’s easy to set up a membership or open an account but it’s more difficult to cancel it
• Hidden fees: When shoppers pay more for something than they initial advertised price suggests
• Disguised advertisements: When ads look like regular content on a website and causes users to unintentionally navigate away from the website they’re initially looking at
• False hierarchy: When a website tries to force a particular choice, “one that is often worse for the user, often through the use of colour, placement or size”
• Data grab: When a website tries to get customers to share more personal information than is needed
• Nagging: Redirection from a task that continues after one interaction
• Scarcity cue: When a website creates a sense of urgency or pressure for users to complete certain actions
• Activity notifications: When details about what other consumers (whether it’s real or fake) is shared to encourage people to make a particular choice or action
• Confirmshaming: When a website tries to guilt-trip people into making a certain choice - “often by using negative, emotive language”
• Forced action: When a person has to complete an action, for example answering a survey question, before being able to complete an intended task

Consumer NZ says: “Dark patterns may seem like other kinds of promotional features we see online, and the line between the two can often be blurred or hard to define."

“What distinguishes dark patterns is the degree to which they impair our ability to make our own choices and influence the outcome of those choices.”

Dark patterns, Consumer NZ says, make people do things they didn’t plan to do or may not have done “if we had access to all the information”.

“They work by exploiting our tendencies to act or think in certain ways, often without our being aware that is what is happening, and their effects can be detrimental to our wellbeing.”

Not immune to influence

Consumer NZ says many consumers are aware of dark patterns and do not like them - but that doesn’t make us immune to their influence.

Its research found 83% of consumers were aware that websites were using design features to influence their behaviour.

But only 47% felt they were personally being influenced.

“However, given that some dark patterns are so effective and seem an ordinary part of online life and therefore barely notable, people may be unaware how some patterns are working on them.”

Consumer NZ says: “Awareness of businesses’ attempts to influence behaviour is strong across ages, incomes, ethnicities, gender and levels of education.”

But digital confidence is the exception, the group says, “with those who are less confident at engaging with digital technology also less likely to be aware of businesses’ attempts to influence their own decision-making”.

“Among the most digitally confident respondents,” 90% said they were aware of attempts to influence through online design, but this figure fell to 60% among the least digitally confident.”

Consumer NZ says its research shows dark pattern design practices are “highly prevalent” in Aotearoa.

The most common dark patterns that participants in the survey could identify were scarcity cues, hidden costs and disguised advertisements.

What do people think about dark patterns?

“Our survey respondents overwhelmingly viewed dark patterns as a strategy to advance a business’ interests rather than to help the customer or make their lives easier,” Consumer NZ says, as 77% of survey participants think businesses are trying to increase revenue with these techniques.

The research also found:

• 58% of those surveyed thought they were used to collect more data
• 56% of participants thought it was used to mislead or pressure people
• 42% believed dark patterns were used to encourage or prompt action

Consumer NZ says 90% of those surveyed found dark patterns made them feel annoyed, 82% felt deceived and 80% say they felt manipulated by at least one of the 10 designs presented to them.

“Just 6% of participants believed dark patterns are used to simplify choices with a further 6% believing they are used to help customers.”

Do they work?

Consumer NZ says consumers have a “relatively high level of confidence” in their ability to spot “deceptive dark patterns” - with 69% of participants telling the group they were “moderately to extremely confident of their ability to spot attempts to influence their choices through design”.

“But even consumers who are confident they can spot the signs of a dark pattern know they’re not immune to the pattern’s effects,” Consumer NZ says.

About 45% low-confidence participants were worried about how online design could influence them compared with 36% among those who were confident spotting dark patterns, Consumer NZ says.

But 55% of people who had high confidence in spotting dark patterns say the design of websites has influenced their choices compared to 43% of people who had low confidence.

When asked if manipulative design had negatively affected them, 37% of people who had high confidence in identifying dark patterns say they have been negatively affected compared to 28% with low confidence.

Influence and impact

Consumer NZ says during one-on-one interviews, a participant told them: “My default position on all websites ... is they're going to try and get more money out of you. As much money as possible."

Another person told Consumer NZ that dark patterns were so prevalent that they don’t believe a lot of what they see online. “The suspicion is they’re screwing you - but you don’t know [it].”

This comes as Consumer NZ's survey found one in three participants shared they had spent more money than they intended because of a dark pattern. 

Of those, 30% spent over $50 more than they had planned and the average extra spend was $42.

When it comes to privacy, 52% of respondents indicated they had experienced data and privacy impacts driven by dark patterns.

Two in five people agreed to something like cookies or marketing emails without realising because of a dark pattern while one in four signed up or created accounts by accident and shared more personal information than they were comfortable with.

The survey found 30% of respondents felt pushed or pressured into buying or signing up for something.

Consumer NZ says once consumers are negatively affected, “they become less trusting of the information provided by the businesses using these strategies and the businesses themselves”.

Change in behaviour

Loss of trust was cited by participants as a major impact after Consumer NZ showed them the 10 dark patterns.

“With repeated exposure to dark patterns, consumers have become savvy to some of the tactics in those patterns, finding techniques to navigate their way with more independence through online shopping processes,” Consumer NZ says.

The survey found 86% of those surveyed performed “avoidant” behaviours to “negate the impact of influential design”.

Consumer NZ says almost two-thirds of respondents avoid websites they don’t trust and more than half of those surveyed are hesitant to click on special offers or pop-ups.

“And 44% said they don’t sign up for free trials because of how websites are designed.”

Consumer NZ says: “While we’d always recommend people act carefully online, there are negative consequences for both consumers and businesses resulting from consumers feeling the need to moderate their behaviour in this way.”

Free trials used to be a way to highlight the quality of a product and a special offer could help people save money, Consumer NZ says, “but consumers are now seeing these options as something to avoid because they are concerned they are being enticed into doing something that will be hard to get out of down the line”.

‘A harder place to confidently spend money’

About 47% of survey participants say they make more comparisons before buying goods or services, 32% say they take more time checking settings, reading fine-print or terms and conditions. As well as this, 19% of those surveyed say they review or change privacy settings.

Consumer NZ says dark patterns have made the internet a harder place to confidently spend money “with decision-making increasingly requiring consumers to critically analyse the content and the potential motivations of businesses in the information they provide”.

Business

“In our survey, businesses that use dark patterns were often seen as putting business benefits above customer experience.

“Just 10% of respondents felt these measures were designed to help consumers, with most respondents believing they were designed to increase revenue (77%), collect more personal data (58%) or to be deliberately misleading (56%),” Consumer NZ says.

Only 4% of those who took part in the survey thought dark patterns was a fair business practice and those respondents were more likely to be digitally confident, Consumer NZ says.

“In the absence of government regulations, businesses should be wary of subjecting their customers to too many dark patterns too often. Dark patterns may drive one-off sales, but our research shows they are unlikely to foster long-term trust or loyalty.”

'The need to act'

Consumer NZ says it’s no longer acceptable to leave consumers to deal with the fall out.

And as the rest of the world takes action on dark patterns (The European Union has consumer protection legislation and regulation that makes it possible to deal with dark patterns while the United States has had regulatory measures in place to protect against dark patterns for years), Consumer NZ says, Aotearoa risks being left behind.

“We can expect dark patterns to become more common, varied and harmful as businesses increase their use of both our data and artificial intelligence (AI).

“As dark patterns and our behaviour evolve, it will be crucial to have a flexible yet effective regulatory regime that will continue to benefit consumers.”

Consumer NZ is calling for:

• A ban on unfair trading: Consumer NZ says Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson should include a general ban on unfair trading practices with the existing Fair Trade Act amendments currently proposed
• The group also wants Simpson to continue with plans to increase relevant penalties under the Fair Trading Act to align with regulations
• The Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith to consider making changes to the Privacy Act to include a “civil penalty regime that bolsters enforcement powers in the event of a serious or repeated breach”
• Clear and accessible options for consumers to take legal action
• The Commerce Commission to publish clear guidance for businesses about dark patterns
• The private sector should collaborate with consumers and others on developing a set of standards to guide businesses in web design
• Businesses should review their online designs regularly
• Business should be proactively removing dark patterns from their websites

Consumer NZ says businesses have a role to play too - as dark patterns don’t just impact trust but can also harm a business’ reputation.

“Businesses can act now to take the lead on best practice digital design and reduce impacts on trust, reputation and loyalty.”

“Our recommendations address the need to act,” Consumer NZ says.