Article 25 Online interface design and organisation

Summary What does Article 25 of the DSA regulation say?

This article targets providers of online platforms, prohibiting them from designing or operating their online interfaces in ways that deceive, manipulate, or impair the ability of users to make free and informed decisions.

It is essentially a "dark patterns" provision, aimed at preventing exploitative interface design.

Notably, the prohibition has a defined boundary: it does not extend to practices already governed by existing EU consumer protection or data protection law.

The Commission is also empowered to issue guidance on how the prohibition applies to specific manipulative practices.

Important points:

Do not design or operate online interfaces in ways that deceive or manipulate recipients or impair their ability to make free and informed decisions.
The prohibition does not apply to practices already covered by Directive 2005/29/EC or Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
The Commission may issue guidelines on specific practices, such as burying certain choices, repeated consent pop-ups, or making service termination harder than sign-up.

Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.

1. Providers of online platforms shall not design, organise or operate their online interfaces in a way that deceives or manipulates the recipients of their service or in a way that otherwise materially distorts or impairs the ability of the recipients of their service to make free and informed decisions.
1. The prohibition in paragraph 1 shall not apply to practices covered by Directive 2005/29/EC or Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
1. The Commission may issue guidelines on how paragraph 1 applies to specific practices, notably:
  1. giving more prominence to certain choices when asking the recipient of the service for a decision;
  2. repeatedly requesting that the recipient of the service make a choice where that choice has already been made, especially by presenting pop-ups that interfere with the user experience;
  3. making the procedure for terminating a service more difficult than subscribing to it.

Relevant recitals

Recital 67 Prohibition of dark patterns

Dark patterns on online interfaces of online platforms are practices that materially distort or impair, either on purpose or in effect, the ability of recipients of the service to make autonomous and informed choices or decisions. Those practices can be used to persuade the recipients of the service to engage in unwanted behaviours or into undesired decisions which have negative consequences for them. Providers of online platforms should therefore be prohibited from deceiving or nudging recipients of the service and from distorting or impairing the autonomy, decision-making, or choice of the recipients of the service via the structure, design or functionalities of an online interface or a part thereof. This should include, but not be limited to, exploitative design choices to direct the recipient to actions that benefit the provider of online platforms, but which may not be in the recipients’ interests, presenting choices in a non-neutral manner, such as giving more prominence to certain choices through visual, auditory, or other components, when asking the recipient of the service for a decision.

It should also include repeatedly requesting a recipient of the service to make a choice where such a choice has already been made, making the procedure of cancelling a service significantly more cumbersome than signing up to it, or making certain choices more difficult or time-consuming than others, making it unreasonably difficult to discontinue purchases or to sign out from a given online platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders, and deceiving the recipients of the service by nudging them into decisions on transactions, or by default settings that are very difficult to change, and so unreasonably bias the decision making of the recipient of the service, in a way that distorts and impairs their autonomy, decision-making and choice. However, rules preventing dark patterns should not be understood as preventing providers to interact directly with recipients of the service and to offer new or additional services to them. Legitimate practices, for example in advertising, that are in compliance with Union law should not in themselves be regarded as constituting dark patterns. Those rules on dark patterns should be interpreted as covering prohibited practices falling within the scope of this Regulation to the extent that those practices are not already covered under Directive 2005/29/EC or Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Table of contents

Springlex and this text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. No liability is assumed for its content. The authentic version of this act is the one published in the Official Journal of the European Union.