Travel websites manipulate prices creating a false sense of urgency

According to a poll, the majority of users of online travel platforms have encountered dark patterns that result in price manipulation and false urgency. Frequent fare surges affect three out of every four consumers, and 74% report being tricked into making impulsive purchases. Unexpected fees are another common occurrence for users while making a payment. The usage of black patterns on e-commerce platforms is prohibited in India

Three out of four users of online travel platforms face fare surges very frequently, according to a LocalCircles survey. The survey received over 33,000 responses from consumers across 323 districts in the country, of which 47 percent of the respondents were from Tier 1 cities, 33 percent from Tier 2 cities and 20 percent from Tier 3 and 4 cities and rural districts. 

Consumers frequently reported changes in airfares and hotel room tariffs over barely a few minutes while searching for flights or hotels. It was almost as if the fares and tariffs were changing based on the number of searches or the eagerness to book, the respondents claimed.

Users also faced a false sense of urgency – where they were misled into making an immediate purchase, with 74 percent of those surveyed indicating that this dark pattern was prevalent on travel platforms.

The government has identified 13 types of dark patterns. Among them are false urgency, basket sneaking (inclusion of products, services, or payments to charity/donation at the time of checkout), confirm shaming (creating a sense of fear, shame, ridicule or guilt to nudge the user to act in a certain way), forced action (requiring the user to buy additional goods or services to buy what they originally intended), subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch (advertising a particular outcome based on a user’s action but deceptively serving an alternative outcome), drip pricing (when elements of prices are not revealed upfront or are revealed surreptitiously), disguised advertisements, and nagging. 

The latest list also identified trick questions, SaaS (software as a service) billing and rogue malware as dark patterns.