Hurry! Only two left! Fourteen people bought this in the last hour! Fifty people are looking at this item!

Anyone who shops online will be familiar with these kinds of messages popping up on their screen. The online equivalent of a pushy salesperson, they are designed to create a sense of urgency around making a purchase.

These online tools are sometimes referred to as “dark patterns” – clever tricks built into apps and websites to encourage you to do things you may not necessarily want to do – like click the “buy” button. One large study revealed that over 11,000 shopping websites use these strategies.

For years this was seen as an inevitable – and irritating – part of online shopping. That’s beginning to change. The UK’s main consumer regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has been probing retailers on these very issues for the past few years.

And there........

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