Live data from Hacker News

Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

90percentofeverything.com

151–160 of 267 posts

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#151
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's hope a form of this law spreads throughout Europe Ummm... this is a EU wide law. The UK, as a member state of the EU, had to implement it into UK law (that's how EU laws work). This is already the law of the land in all EU countries. Nearly all good consumer rights laws are done at the EU level.

You misread the quote. They said "Europe" not the EU. So presumably they were hoping it would spread to non-EU European countries also.

EU directives sometimes also apply to non-member states. (EFTA, countries that are on track becoming EU-members)

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#152
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this basically what Amazon does? I've always felt very comfortable and safe when pushing the buy button on their site.

No they don't: * Can't get shipping charges before the last step (after selecting the credit card which implies I am about to pay) * Sneaking in Prime * Fucked up search

also defaults to non-free shipping at least some times...

I wonder why they purposely fuck up the search... is it to prioritize shipped from amazon products (sort by new and popular is one example)?

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#153
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They updated it last year: "Starting December 2013, boarding card reissue fees will be cut from €70 or £70 to €15 or £15." You can see their fee schedule at: http://www.ryanair.com/en/fees/ — yes, they charge a fee to even assign you a seat. (Anecdote: I had a printed boarding pass all crumpled up at the bottom of my bag (they let you check in weeks before your flight, so it had to survive for a while) and my poorly…

> yes, they charge a fee to even assign you a seat. Everyone does that now. Delta, BA, AA, Virgin, etc. I can think of very few airlines that give you free seat selection before check-in. I don't agree with it, but it is the way things have gone for all airlines. Just like baggage fees on local flights (even though that causes mass delays during boarding since now everyone is trying to show too much into cramp overhe…

Are you sure? I feel like it's the opposite. Nearly everyone I've flown with in the last few months has let me pick a seat in advance. I can even pay for the premium seats in advance.

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#154
I feel like this is at least partially a success story for people like those at darkpatterns.org who have put a lot of time and effort into documenting these abuses. It seems pretty likely that without someone cataloging all these abuses, they would have been able to stay under the radar and remain just something you have to put up with.

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#155
post #3

Sounds like an excellent law to stop the horrid practices in so many online shops. Let's hope a form of this law spreads throughout Europe and the U.S. This caught my eye, however: "A failure to comply cancels the transaction. You can get your money back and keep the goods. If the sale was for a service or a digital download, the contract is cancelled and no further payments are due." Wow. Seems like it would make a…

Jeepers. I can think of several big US commercial sites that would turn unprofitable overnight.

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#156
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. This shouldn't need specific regulations, they should be treated as plain fraud by small claim courts. This just underlines the brokenness of the system.

Courts writing law. What could possibly go wrong with that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#157
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misread the quote. They said "Europe" not the EU. So presumably they were hoping it would spread to non-EU European countries also.

I find that it's increasingly the case that "Europe" gets used in place of EU in much the same way as people will say "America" when they mean the USA.

I believe "America" is usually an abbreviated form of "United States of America" whereas "The Americas" is commonly used to refer to the American continents.

Edit: this is a little different than your case where Europe can refer to the European continent, but "America" pretty much never refers to the two American continents.

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#159
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that it's increasingly the case that "Europe" gets used in place of EU in much the same way as people will say "America" when they mean the USA.

Then people are "increasingly" using it incorrectly. Europe is a continent, the EU is a political alliance. There are too many countries within Europe but not in the EU to use the terms synonymously. For example: Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Vatican City I think…

I'm European and I conflate them all the time. You're getting downvoted because it's a pointless derailment, not just out of disagreement. You may also wish to read the guidelines, especially this one:

If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK

#160
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair don't do that. The price they advertise at the flight choice time is the price you pay. THey then try shove extras down your throat, but you're not obligated to buy travel insurance, rent a car, use their jet ski etc .

That's not the case - I flew with them a few weeks ago. Turns out in order to print the return journey boarding pass more than a week in advance you need to pre-book a seat (for a cost). Not great if you're going away for two weeks without guaranteed access to a printer.

I fly with them regularly, but they're short trips (2-4 days) so my experience is different. You can check get your boarding pass in some airports by phone now though which also helps!
Post reply on HN