FTC Action Alleging Dark Patterns Forces Software Company To Pay Damages And Adopt New Practices

On November 3, the FTC and a software company operating internet-based telephone services filed an agreed upon proposed court order, which includes a $100 million fine, following an FTC suit alleging that the software company participated in illegal dark patterns and charged junk fees. In its original complaint, the FTC alleged that the software company provided simple ways to sign up for their phone plans, but made it difficult to cancel those plans, and harmed consumers by:

• forcing customers to cancel their plans through only one channel, speaking to a live agent over the phone on a cancellation line;
• making it difficult to contact such cancellation line by acts such as not making the contact number accessible, not consistently transferring customers from the service line to the cancellation line, offering reduced hours on the cancellation line, and not providing callbacks;