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Title: Consumer Group Accuses Shein of Manipulating Shoppers With 'Dark
Patterns'

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/05/2114...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC: A consumer organization filed a
complaint with the European Commission on Thursday against online fast-
fashion retailer Shein over its use of "dark patterns," which are tactics
designed to make people buy more on its app and website. Pop-ups urging
customers not to leave the app or risk losing promotions, countdown timers
that create time pressure to complete a purchase and the infinite scroll on
its app are among the methods Shein uses that could be considered "aggressive
commercial practices," wrote BEUC, a pan-European consumer group, in a
report. The BEUC also detailed Shein's use of frequent notifications, with
one phone receiving 12 notifications from the app in a single day. "For fast
fashion you need to have volume, you need to have mass consumption, and these
dark patterns are designed to stimulate mass consumption," said Agustin
Reyna, director general of BEUC, in an interview. "For us, to be satisfactory
they need to get rid of these dark patterns, but the question is whether they
will have enough incentive to do so, knowing the potential impact it can have
on the volume of purchases." [...] The BEUC also targeted the online discount
platform Temu, a Shein rival, in a previous complaint. Both platforms have
surged in popularity in Europe, partly helped by apps that encourage shoppers
to engage with games and stand to win discounts and free products. [...] The
BEUC noted that dark patterns are widely used by mass-market clothing
retailers and called on the consumer protection network to include other
retailers in its investigation. It said 25 of its member organizations in 21
countries, including France, Germany and Spain, joined in the grievance filed
with the commission and with the European consumer protection network. Temu
and Shein have their own issues in the United States. Following the recent
closure of the de minimis loophole, use of the two Chinese platforms have
slowed significantly. "Temu's U.S. daily active users (DAUs) dropped 52% in
May versus March, before Trump's tariffs were announced, while those at rival
Shein were down 25%," reports CNBC, citing data from market intelligence firm
Sensor Tower. "The declines were also reflected in both platforms' Apple App
Store rankings. Temu averaged a rank of 132 in May 2025, down from an average
top 3 ranking a year ago, while Shein averaged a rank of 60 last month versus
a top 10 ranking the year prior, the data showed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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