The Majority of Respondents (69.02%) Experienced Amazon’s ‘Dark Pattern’ Interface

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against Amazon, accusing the company of using “dark patterns” to enroll consumers in Prime without their consent and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

Allegedly, Amazon tricked users into buying Prime subscriptions by employing manipulative tactics during checkout and implemented a complex cancellation process to discourage users from unsubscribing. The FTC claims that Amazon’s executives were aware of the issues but failed to address them until the investigation began.

Hence, Real Research, an online survey app, launched a survey on FTC suing Amazon over Prime’s “dark patterns” to gauge public opinion on the FTC suing Amazon and other Amazon Prime membership concerns.

Highlights:

• 58.21% of respondents had used Amazon Prime services within the previous year.
• Most respondents (69.02%) had experienced the “dark pattern” tactics.
• 41.24% planned on joining Amazon Prime in the future.

In our survey about the FTC suing Amazon, we first asked our respondents if they were aware of the FTC suing Amazon for allegedly breaching the Online Trust Recovery Act by allegedly adopting a “dark pattern” — a manipulative method designed to mislead users into making particular decisions.

The first survey poll revealed that most respondents (65.41%) were aware of the FTC suing Amazon, compared to 34.59% who were unaware.

Subsequently, we asked whether the respondents had subscribed to Amazon Prime before. Nearly six-in-ten respondents (58.21%) said yes, while 41.79% said no.

What is Dark Pattern?

A “dark pattern” is a user interface that is a carefully-crafted tactic designed to trick users into doing certain things, such as making unintended purchases, subscribing to services unknowingly, or sharing personal information against their best interests.

Such practices have significant implications for society, as they can erode trust in digital platforms, compromise user privacy, and undermine the principles of fair and ethical design.

According to our next poll, we found that most respondents (69.02%) had experienced dark patterns before, in comparison to 30.98% who hadn’t.

Dark Patterns Respondents Have Encountered

In the next poll, we asked the respondents to select any dark pattern they had experienced before. The results were as follows:

Most respondents (28.34%) stated that they had encountered price comparison prevention, and another 24.58% said sneaking into the basket. They were followed by tricky questions (12.38%), hidden costs (7.94%), challenging termination (6.1%), and exploiting users’ attention (3.21%).

Similarly, when respondents were inquired to identify the type of dark pattern they experienced the most, the following percentages were reported: disguised advertisements (8.62%), difficult account closure (8.11%), forced continuity (7.66%), friend spam (7.61%), bait and switch (7.53%), hidden costs (6.91%), and price comparison prevention (6.59%).

FTC Chair Lina M. Khan states, “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money.” In addition, pointed out the harm of manipulative tricks and the harms, and stated that the FTC would “vigorously protect Americans from ‘dark patterns’ and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets.”

We inquired our respondents about their opinions on Amazon’s policy. The results showed that 32.59% believed the policy was an illegal act that costs consumers, 26.57% said it was a marketing strategy to increase Prime subscribers, 23.51% remained uncertain, and 17.33% stated other reasons.

Effective Measures in Preventing the Practice of Dark Patterns

In the next poll, the participants were presented with a range of measures and asked to select the ones they believed would be most effective in preventing the use of dark patterns. This poll aimed to gather insights into potential strategies or actions that could be implemented to curb the prevalence and impact of deceptive design practices known as dark patterns.

28.85% said that governments and institutions should keep monitoring the market for similar practices, 26.39% said businesses should have a social responsibility and strengthen self-regulation, and 27.57% noted a strong legal framework to regulate dark patterns directly.

Lastly, the survey asked the respondents whether they would ever plan to join Amazon Prime in the future. 41.24% said yes, while 34.94% said no, and 23.82% were already subscribers of Amazon Prime.