E-commerce marketing · Industry brief

The Federal Trade Commission announced a draft enforcement policy targeting personalized pricing, defined as using personal data to set prices based on consumer willingness to spend. The FTC will aggressively enforce Section 5 of the FTC Act against personalized pricing practices that may be unfair or deceptive, including those that fail to disclose the use of personalized pricing when consumers expect static prices, lack clear disclosures about personalization bases and data types, or proceed without consumer consent. The public has 30 days to comment on the proposed policy once published in the Federal Register, as states continue advancing their own personalized pricing restrictions. Source: Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (law firm trade publication/resource).

The Central Consumer Protection Authority of India has been actively enforcing its 2023 Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns under the Consumer Protection Act, holding digital platforms liable for deceptive user interface designs. The CCPA issued an advisory in June 2025 encouraging e-commerce platforms to conduct voluntary self-audits to check for dark patterns and submit self-declaration reports, while also clarifying that preselected or default options do not satisfy affirmative consent requirements under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. However, India's enforcement approach faces structural challenges, including coordination gaps between the CCPA and sectoral regulators—notably the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken no action on dark patterns despite consumer complaints, while the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India have pursued their own compliance directives aligned with the guidelines.

Thailand's competition regulator expects to issue decisions within three months on some of 21 e-commerce platform complaints received since new guidelines took effect in March 2026. The Trade Competition Commission of Thailand is considering greater use of administrative enforcement to accelerate cases and plans to apply an updated theory-of-harm framework to scrutinize practices including forced promotions, fee increases, mandatory logistics arrangements, and account closures. Source: MLex (August 24, 2026).