BREAKING: FTC Announces It Will Ramp Up Enforcement Against "Dark Patterns" Directed At Consumers

This month, CPW's Kyle Fath, Kristin Bryan, Christina Lamoureux & Elizabeth Helpling explained how data privacy and cybersecurity were Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") priorities. As they wrote, there were "three key areas of interest to consumer privacy that are now in the FTC's spotlight, as well as their relation to state privacy legislation and their anticipated impact to civil litigation." One area of interest they identified was deceptive and manipulative conduct on the Internet (including so-called "dark patterns"). Today, the FTC announced that it was going to ramp up enforcement against illegal dark patterns that trick consumers into subscriptions. Read on to learn more and what it means going forward.