On July 31, 2023, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (the “KFTC”) announced its ‘Guidelines for Self-Regulation of Online Dark Patterns’. The KFTC had previously included an extensive strategy for effectively regulating ‘dark patterns,’ a form of deceptive advertising, in its annual enforcement plan. In April 2023, the KFTC further outlined the criteria for defining a dark pattern in its policy direction announcement, and pledged to actively address any activities that deviate from such criteria while fully respecting market autonomy.
‘Dark patterns’ refer to User Interfaces (UI) intentionally designed to mislead consumers. Examples include services that covertly transition to a paid version after a free trial period or systems where the termination process is intentionally made more complicated than the sign-up procedure.