The 14th Public Commission Meeting – Dark Patterns, Imposter Rulemaking And Yet Another Policy Statement

After a surprise three-month hiatus, we are back in business with our Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) public and totally unscripted meetings. Candidly, we were a bit surprised to see the return of these meetings, but not quite as surprised as the realization that Kate Bush had the Song of the Summer in 2022. This also was the first Commission meeting since Commissioner Noah Phillips announced that he would be leaving the agency at an unspecified time in the fall. There's no intel on where he is going, but campaigning for his slot has apparently already commenced.

Back to the meeting – and we will start with the dark patterns discussion because we keep hearing about this topic. For those of us with long memories, you may recall that back in April 2021, the FTC conducted a workshop on dark patterns, exploring "ways in which user interfaces can have the effect, intentionally or unintentionally, of obscuring, subverting, or impairing consumer autonomy,