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This article is part of ‘Guidelines on the protection of the online consumer’. View full guideline

Rules if you promote the use of your online service

You are allowed to stimulate the use of your online service or that consumers use it more actively. However, you cannot mislead or unduly influence consumers into using the service more than they would otherwise. That is an unfair commercial practice. Unfair commercial practices are prohibited. That is why there are boundaries to the way in which you can design your service for boosting the use thereof.

Consumers do not need to pay with money for using many online services. Businesses that provide such services usually earn money from (personalized) ads. They often stimulate consumers to use the service as much as possible or to prevent them from switching to another service. For if consumers spend more time on the service (time spent) and are more active on it (engagement), that service becomes more attractive to advertisers. Businesses will then be able to charge more for the advertising space. Furthermore, that is how they collect more data about their users and their behavior. And that knowledge, too, is worth money.

Stimulating online use is allowed, but only to a certain extent. You must comply with the rules laid down in consumer protection law.

With the upcoming Digital Services Act, new rules will also be introduced, particularly for online platforms. Most of these rules will come into force as of 17 February 2024. For online platforms, a ban on ‘dark patterns’ will come into effect. These are techniques that disrupt or restrict the ability of consumers to make free and well-informed decisions. This ban will apply to practices that do not fall under the rules regarding unfair commercial practices or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

What is required and what is not allowed?

  • Make sure that with the online environment of your service you do not mislead or unduly influence consumers into using your service more or longer than they would do so otherwise. This applies to the design, the default settings and the recommender systems, among other aspects. For example, do not use game techniques and game elements to take too much advantage of behavioral pitfalls of consumers. It becomes too much if the techniques unduly influence consumers and disrupt their decision to use (or continue to use) the service.

  • Do not send any misleading messages or notifications in order to lure consumers to your service, for example by giving the impression that consumers have received a message from a friend, whereas, in reality, it is an ad.

  • Do not mislead consumers by giving them a false impression of your service’s popularity, for example by saying that many users are online, whereas, in reality, this is not true.

  • Do not put so much pressure on consumers that the decision to use (or continue to use) the service is disrupted, for example by taking advantage of behavioral pitfalls through analyses of data (personal data or otherwise). Think of repeatedly sending personalized notifications, and which capitalize on consumers’ desires with their content and frequency. If that makes consumers use the service more often or longer than they would without such pressure, it may be considered undue influence.

Tips

  • When designing your online environment, keep the interests of consumers in mind. In that context, use tools to manage their time on your service better. Think of warnings in case of extended sessions or of not using certain functionalities or switching them off by default, for example functionalities such as infinite scrolling or playing the next video automatically (autoplay).

  • Let consumers choose themselves whether they wish to receive notifications from the service, and if so, what notifications. Use an ‘opt-in model’ for notifications.

Examples

Example: Misleading notifications

The app of a social-media service sends notifications by default. These notifications give the impression that friends on the service are online. In reality, however, this is not the case. This is a misleading practice, and is not allowed.

Example: Design choices that are in the interest of consumers

A video platform service does not automatically start a new video when a video has ended. This has been a deliberate choice in the service’s design. The service does not use infinite scrolling either. As a result, the service does not give the impression of an infinite supply of videos. With these design choices, the service takes into account the interests (economic or otherwise) of consumers. This is an example of a practice that ACM recommends.

Relevant regulations

Explanation of regulations