On November 21, 2022, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – “BaFin“) clarified in a statement that investment firms are not allowed to use dark patterns in trading apps or trading portals. Against this background, BaFin also published two new FAQs on the conduct of business rules for investment firms.

In BaFin’s opinion, dark patterns in digital decision worlds (“choice architecture“) violate the ban of misleading information and the principle of fairness and are therefore unlawful.

What are dark patterns?

Dark patterns are when individual buttons in apps or on websites have a significantly lower [...]

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