Online Choice Architecture & Dark Patterns Compliance Check

Since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force, the Competition and Markets Authority has been actively enforcing against “dark patterns” — website and app designs that manipulate visitors into decisions they wouldn’t otherwise make. This is now a low-ambiguity enforcement area: the CMA has already taken action against businesses including Simba Sleep, Wowcher, and Emma Group over manufactured urgency claims such as countdown timers and “only X left” messages that weren’t grounded in reality. The DMCCA gives the CMA direct enforcement powers, including fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover, without needing to go through the courts — a significant change from the old consumer protection regime, and one that makes these cases faster and cheaper for the regulator to bring.

Dark patterns cover more than fake urgency: pre-ticked consent boxes, “confirmshaming” language on cancel buttons, hiding a cheaper or free option behind extra clicks, drip-feeding information to make comparison harder, and cancellation journeys that are deliberately more difficult than sign-up all fall within the CMA’s scope under its online choice architecture guidance. Many small businesses use website templates, plugins, or agency-built designs that include these patterns by default — often inherited from marketing “best practice” advice that predates this enforcement wave. Because the underlying legal test is simply whether the design misleads or unfairly pressures the average consumer, businesses don’t need to have intended to deceive anyone to fall foul of the rules — a countdown timer that quietly resets for every visitor is enough on its own.

This check reviews your website’s checkout, sign-up, and cancellation design against CMA rules on dark patterns and online choice architecture under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.