Loading…
The Central Consumer Protection Authority has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido, for misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices, unfair contract and dark patterns.
CCPA held that prompts urging riders to add Rs 10, 20 or 30 after a booking was already placed amount to 'Confirm Shaming', a dark pattern listed under the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023.
A colour-coded 'Set your price' slider — green for raising the fare, red or orange for lowering it, with more room to increase than to decrease — was held to be a second dark pattern, 'Interface Interference'.
CCPA held that a tip is ordinarily voluntary and paid after a service, and cited the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, which allow a tipping feature only after a ride is completed.
The order follows a sector-wide examination of advance-tipping and dynamic-pricing practices; notices had earlier gone to Uber, Ola, Rapido and Namma Yatri, and the examination of Uber and Ola is continuing.
A dark pattern is an interface or user-experience design built to mislead or trick a user into doing something they did not intend, by impairing their autonomy or choice. The 2023 Guidelines list thirteen, including basket sneaking, forced action, trick questions, confirm shaming and interface interference.
Simple Analogy: A shop aisle laid out so the exit passes the till.
The statute under which CCPA acts. Section 10 of the Act is the provision under which the Authority itself was established, and its mandate is to protect consumers as a class, prevent unfair trade practices and act against false or misleading advertisements for goods or services.
Notified by CCPA on 30 November 2023. Annexure I specifies thirteen dark patterns that are treated as unfair trade practices — including Confirm Shaming and Interface Interference, the two applied in this order — and the list may be modified by CCPA.
Cited by CCPA for the requirement that any tipping feature be made available only after a ride is completed, and not at the time of booking or during the ride — which is what made Rapido's pre-ride prompt impermissible in its own right.
India's national consumer regulator, established under Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 with effect from 24 July 2020. It protects consumers as a class — as against individual redress, which lies with the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions — and can investigate, order recalls, direct the discontinuance of practices and impose penalties for misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices.
The finding turns on timing: the prompt appeared after the rider had committed, when bargaining power was lowest. That is the regulatory test now being applied to surge and dynamic pricing generally, rather than to advertising content alone.
CCPA acts for consumers as a class and imposes penalties on its own motion; a consumer seeking compensation for personal loss still goes to the District, State or National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission under the same 2019 Act.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Statutory and Regulatory Bodies; GS Paper 3 > Economy > E-commerce Regulation
General Awareness > Polity > Acts and Regulatory Authorities
A dark pattern that uses fear, shame or urgency to push a consumer into an action, such as warning that a ride may not be accepted unless more is paid.
A dark pattern in which the visual design of a screen — colour, spacing, slider range — steers a consumer towards a particular choice independently of the text.
A practice adopting deceptive methods to promote the sale, use or supply of goods or services, actionable by CCPA under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.