Consent, design, and deceit: a bottom-up proposal for regulating dark patterns

Journal article

Privacy law’s overreliance on individual consent has incentivized the proliferation of deceptive design known as “dark patterns.” Dark patterns are user-interface techniques that manipulate people into making unintended decisions, often by extracting formalistic, although largely meaningless, expressions of consent. Legislative developments in Canada, the US, and the EU highlight a growing awareness of online manipulation and the alienation of individual agency. Yet dark patterns continue to pose a pervasive risk to consumer protection, privacy, and even democratic institutions. We argue that the proliferation of dark patterns is rooted in an overreliance on individual consent, and that a systemic solution is required to address online manipulation. We then propose a new approach to regulating dark patterns systemically through a grassroots reporting and rewards framework implemented by legislation that prohibits dark patterns, enforced by an authority in charge of investigating claims.

Authors: Coomes, H; Cofone, I

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Journal: University of Toronto Law Journal
• Acceptance date: 2026-01-23
• EISSN: 1710-1174
• ISSN: 0042-0220
• Language: English