SINGAPORE, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's competition regulator has found that two retailers of consumer electronics and home appliances used website design features to mislead consumers.
In a statement on Monday, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) said that Courts, a major consumer electronics, IT and furniture retailer, had automatically added unsolicited items to customers' online shopping carts.
Courts has given an undertaking to the CCS to immediately stop the practice, and agreed to refund customers affected by what the regulator described as an unfair trade practice.
The CCS also found that PRISM+, a consumer electronics brand, deployed fake countdown timers and misleading stock indicators to pressure consumers into purchases. PRISM+ has addressed these issues and provided an undertaking that it will not use unfair trade practices.
"These two interventions form part of a series of recent enforcement actions taken by the CCS against businesses that employ dark patterns to mislead and pressure consumers into unintended purchases," said CCS Chief Executive Alvin Koh. ■
