The Italian Competition and Market Authority has issued a sizeable fine of €9 million to the eDreams group for employing deceptive digital tactics known as dark patterns. These manipulative strategies were designed to trick consumers into signing up for and maintaining the company’s “Prime” subscription service through both its website and mobile app.
The regulator found that eDreams used a combination of ambiguous information and psychological triggers, such as artificial scarcity and time pressure, to rush users into making purchase decisions. In many cases, the company pre-selected the most expensive subscription options or charged users for annual memberships immediately after they were led to believe they were only signing up for a free trial. Furthermore, the agency discovered that the actual magnitude of the promised discounts was often presented in a misleading way that lacked basic transparency.
Beyond the deceptive enrollment process, eDreams was also penalized for making it unnecessarily difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions. The company implemented aggressive retention strategies through its customer service channels to obstruct users from exercising their right to withdraw from the service. These combined actions were found to be in direct violation of the Consumer Code, resulting in a €6 million penalty for the misleading design and an additional €3 million for the aggressive cancellation obstacles.