CREATe is happy to present the tenth entry in our series of working papers released in 2025: ‘Mapping the Scholarship of the Regulation of Dark Patterns: A Systematic Review of Concepts, Regulatory Paradigms, and Solutions from Law and HCI perspectives’ by Weiwei Yi and Zihao Li, both of CREATe, University of Glasgow. The paper is a reprint of an article published in Computer Law & Security Review.
This paper is inspired by the systematic review by Colin M. Gray and colleagues on the systematic review of dark patterns scholarship. What we aim to do differently is to examine how the concept of a dark pattern is understood in scholarship that discusses the regulation of dark patterns, and how law researchers and various laws react to the phenomenon of dark patterns.
The paper begins with a systematic review using content and thematic analysis of the literature and explores the landscape of legal regimes that involve discussions of dark patterns. For example, we found that dark patterns appear across different legal areas, with personal data protection law, consumer protection law, and competition law leading the discussion. This shows how dark patterns have raised concerns across legal disciplines, due to their nature rooted in behavioural economics and the conflict of interest between businesses and users across economic sectors (see more in Section 5.2.3 of the paper).
The paper also dissects the inherent obstacles faced by each legal sector in regulating dark patterns, whether rooted in the concept of dark patterns or in the architecture of the laws.
We believe that current regulations are hindered by the ambiguous nature of diverse types of dark patterns. As specified previously, the extent to which dark patterns are persuasive, manipulative, deceptive, or coercive is not well-defined. However, clarifying the normative nature of different dark patterns is crucial as they underpin the existing regulatory framework. (Section 6.1.1.)
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Nevertheless, this paper illustrates different routes to tackle the problem of dark patterns that can be implemented, non-exclusively, across different sectoral laws, including paradigmatic changes to legal doctrines (5.3.2.1), refinement of existing regulatory frameworks (5.3.2.2), and technical design-embedded solutions and design accountability checks (5.3.2.3).
Among other contributions, the paper proposes the regulatory paradigm of ‘diligent design’, which draws inspiration from, and speaks to, the current digital regulation of the DSA and earlier consumer protection law (the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive), and which may help underpin the structuring of the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.
Future digital regulations (such as the proposed Digital Fairness Act) could require different versions of software designs for different user groups… for the public who could have individual vulnerabilities which can potentially be exploited, they may access this version through a simplified self-claiming/reporting of individual vulnerabilities. This is because, while it is difficult to prove and redress non-material harms of dark patterns, it would also be inappropriate for companies with design power to assume that individuals have no vulnerabilities and would not suffer from derivative harms due to careless or reckless designs…
….Under the name of diligent design, researchers may acquire a better position to explore and experiment with practical measures that help mitigate the designs that elude regulation due to the dilemmatic ‘average/vulnerable consumer’ dichotomy. (See more in 6.3)
We want to express our thanks to Dr Annelieke Mooij (Assistant Professor at Tilburg University) for making this podcast episode about this paper as well. The podcast is very informative with an accessible conversational walk-through of the key points of dark patterns and regulatory paradigms. If you feel like my paper may be TL;DR (too long; didn’t read), then this is a great alternative for you. You can listen to the podcast here.
Enjoy reading (or listening)! Contact @Weiwei Yi (w.yi.1@research.gla.ac.uk) if you have thoughts or would like to discuss this work further.
Mapping the Scholarship of the Regulation of Dark Patterns: A Systematic Review of Concepts, Regulatory Paradigms, and Solutions from Law and HCI perspectives
Weiwei Yi and Zihao Li
CREATe Working Paper 2025/10
Abstract
In recent years, dark patterns, which are interface designs that manipulate user decisions, have raised growing regulatory concern. Yet scholarship on their governance remains fragmented, particularly in how the concept is defined, the harms are understood, and legal responses are framed. This paper offers a systematic review of 65 studies from Law and Human–Computer Interaction, following PRISMA guidelines. It identifies five root problems and layered harms, critiques sectoral regulations for their theoretical and enforcement limits, and synthesises proposed solutions, from doctrinal refinements and accountability measures to technical design interventions. Building on these findings, the paper argues that regulatory progress is hindered by the elusive nature of dark patterns, the difficulty of pinpointing actionable harms, and the expanding scope of the concept. It concludes by advocating a paradigmatic shift towards a proactive framework centred on ‘diligent design’, and outlines directions for collaborative, transdisciplinary research.
Full paper can be downloaded here.