The new Publication "Dark Patterns - Phenomenology und Legal Answers" by Prof. Dr. Mario Martini, Christian Drews, Paul Seeliger and Quirin Weinzierl (LL.M. Yale) is published in the new Journal for Digitization and Law (Zeitschrift für Digitalisierung und Recht 2021, S. 47 - 74).
The advancing digitaziation of commercial interactions crates ever growing possibilities to influence human decision making. So-called “Dark Patterns” allow designers of digital user-interfaces to steer users into taking decisions they would not have made otherwise. Although Dark Patterns constitute a relatively recent development, data protection, consumer protection as well as fair trading law already prohibit some of their manifestations. Nevertheless, these legal regimes are often based on the model of the reational consumer. The subliminal effects of Dark Patterns however reveal the particular risks boundedly-rational actors face. This finding indicates legal adjustments.
The article is available here (open access, German only).
