Dark-pattern family · 8 patterns
Adds unnecessary friction, barriers or dead ends to dissuade the user from a choice, right or task.
This family groups related interface mechanisms for learning and journey review. It is not a legal category and does not make every matching interface unlawful. Start with the mechanism, then examine the complete decision, audience, effect and EU rule actually within scope.
Recognition framework
Start from the outcome represented to the user and verify every route reaches the matching backend state. Compare entry and exit effort, record each delay or channel switch and identify which user interest each required step protects. Test errors and unavailable channels, not only the happy path.
Security, fraud prevention and accurate account closure can justify proportionate checks. They should be assessed step by step rather than treated as a general excuse for loops, irrelevant information or a route that never completes.
EU legal and policy context
A family name helps teams compare interface mechanisms. It is not an EU legal category, and similarity to an example does not establish that a current rule has been infringed or that a future Digital Fairness Act will use the same label.
The UCPD and any relevant sector instrument require their own scope, conduct, information and likely-effect assessment. The complete journey and evidence matter; a taxonomy match is only a prompt to investigate.
The Commission is preparing a legislative DFA initiative and currently places a proposal in Q4 2026. That planning date is indicative, and no published proposal yet creates a family-specific duty.
The call for evidence discusses possible policy responses to digital fairness concerns. Options, consultation questions and stakeholder submissions are not Commission proposals or present obligations.
Final instrument form, scope, definitions, thresholds, enforcement, transition and application remain unknown until primary legislative text is published and validated.
Journey coverage
Review the state before the decision, the controls and information available at that moment, the immediate result and any later account or billing consequence. Journey links below show where this family appears in the published taxonomy; they do not imply that every product or every stage contains the mechanism.
5 related patterns
Account settings determine whether earlier choices remain controllable. Privacy preferences, exports, deletion, support and content controls often span several channels and states. Review therefore needs to test persistence and actual system outcomes, not only whether a settings label or help article exists.
Open the journey guide →1 related pattern
A subscription is a lifecycle rather than one purchase screen. Trial conversion, billing period, renewal, plan changes and continued access must be understood together. The interface should enable a person to distinguish a one-off payment from a recurring arrangement and compare the present benefit with later price and exit consequences.
Open the journey guide →2 related patterns
Cancellation review compares the represented exit with the steps, channels and final account state needed to complete it. Legitimate identity or account-protection controls can add proportionate friction, but retention prompts, language and technical dead ends should not prevent a clear instruction from reaching a durable outcome.
Open the journey guide →2 related patterns
Pricing review starts before checkout. Search cards, campaign landing pages, recommendation logic, comparison tables and membership offers can each shape the price a person understands. Teams should reconstruct the comparable payable amount, the basis of every saving or popularity claim and the information available when a product first becomes a realistic option.
Open the journey guide →2 related patterns
Checkout concentrates price, add-ons, urgency, identity and the final payment action. Review should begin with the state carried into the basket and finish only when the order, receipt and account state agree. A control that appears clear in isolation can still be misleading when a fee arrives late, a removed item returns or the final button does more than its label predicts.
Open the journey guide →1 related pattern
Signup is where access, identity, permissions and first-run choices meet. A useful review follows the user from the promise made before registration through every required field, default, consent request and first-use screen. The question is not whether signup is persuasive, but whether people can understand what is necessary, what is optional and what each control will do before they commit.
Open the journey guide →Pattern directory
Each detail page contains two fictional interface comparisons, practical recognition and exclusion criteria, a fairer alternative, review questions and a legal-status map that keeps editorial taxonomy separate from current law and the announced DFA process.
Deleting an account is unavailable, disguised as another outcome or burdened by unnecessary barriers. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Account deletion obstructionEnding an existing subscription, recurring service or permission is made difficult to find or complete through unnecessary steps or channel asymmetry. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Cancellation frictionInformation needed to compare products, plans or consequences is presented in inconsistent, fragmented or unusable form. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Comparison preventionAccess to support needed to resolve a purchase, account, charge or right is hidden or burdened by unnecessary loops and dead ends. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Customer-support obstructionA consumer-favourable route cannot reach its represented outcome and instead loops, stalls or loses progress. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Dead endA proprietary currency makes the real monetary cost or remaining value unnecessarily hard to understand. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Intermediate currencyA relevant alternative within the current decision is hidden, blocked or made materially harder than the business-favoured action. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Obstructed alternativePrivacy controls are fragmented, inconsistently labelled or layered so that limiting collection or use is unnecessarily difficult. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
2 visual examples
See visual examples: Privacy mazeEvidence-led workflow
Evidence base