‘Confirm shaming’: CCPA fines Rapido ₹10 lakh for dark patterns, unfair contract | India News

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a ₹10 lakh penalty on Roppen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd, which operates prominent bike-taxi and auto-rickshaw platform Rapido, for unfair trade practices, unfair contracts, and "dark patterns" that manipulated commuters into paying higher fares before their rides were confirmed.A statement by the consumer affairs ministry on Tuesday said CCPA found that the Rapido app first quoted a fare to the customer. When the customer accepted the fare, it prompted them to pay more on the grounds that its operators were not accepting the original fare by displaying messages such as “Higher the price, higher the chance of getting a ride” and “Captains aren't accepting at ₹60. Try adding +10, +20, +30”.Also read | Rapido rider sends ‘I love you’ message to Noida woman, dares her to file complaintThis practice amounts to “confirm shaming”, one of the dark patterns identified under the government's 2023 guidelines. It creates a false impression that a rider’s chances of getting a ride quickly depend on paying an additional amount at the precise stage when the rider has already committed to the booking and has limited scope to negotiate, CCPA said in its 34-page order on August 31.A wider problemAccording to the statement, the action forms part of CCPA’s wider scrutiny of dark-pattern practices across ride-hailing and bike-taxi platforms. The examination of Uber and Ola is still ongoing, according to the ministry statement.Rapido was given 15 days to submit a compliance report.Also read | Now, Chandigarh suspends Uber, Rapido’s licences for 6 monthsThe triggerThe CCPA came on a representation dated May 16 that accused the app-based taxi aggregator of adopting a manipulative pre-ride tipping feature and exploitative dynamic pricing. This feature prompted users to pay a "tip" to the driver before confirmation of the ride, on the representation that doing so would expedite the booking process. It also alleged arbitrary and excessive pricing during peak hours in the absence of any statutory fare regulation applicable to private cab aggregators.The CCPA investigation indicated that the platform displayed prompts that created the impression that the rider's chances of getting a ride depended on paying more, even though the company had not produced data showing that an additional payment actually increased the likelihood of a ride being confirmed.This, the authority said, amounted to “confirm shaming”. The CCPA's objection was that the app was making the consumer feel that refusing to pay more could mean losing the ride or waiting longer.The authority rejected Rapido's argument that the prompts merely reflected a real-time negotiation between rider and driver. It said the platform itself generated the fare and controlled both the consumer and driver sides of the transaction, making it more than a neutral intermediary.The CCPA also took issue with Rapido's “Set your price” interface.The order said that when the rider moved the slider upwards, the app showed “Higher the price, higher the chance of getting a ride” in green. Moving it down produced a red or orange warning. Also, the interface provided more room to raise the price than to lower it.The authority classified this as “Interface Interference”, another dark pattern, saying the visual design itself pushed the consumer towards a higher price, independently of the words displayed on the screen.CCPA said that the combination of the wording and colour-coded interface was a misleading representation and questioned whether the additional payment could be described as a tip.The order, passed by chief commissioner Nidhi Khare and commissioner Anupam Khare, reasoned that the fare shown to a customer already takes into account the distance, time, traffic conditions, tolls and the amount payable to the driver."A tip is ordinarily a voluntary payment made after a service has been rendered and should not be presented as a condition for the service to be provided," it said.CCPA pointed to the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, which provides that a voluntary tipping option should become visible only after completion of the journey and should not be available at booking or during the ride.