Dark patterns is a fine technical term for making it frustratingly difficult to cancel various subscriptions and services. Do you want to cancel that audiobook service you never use? Please, it takes ten steps with various visual obstacles. Tired of the newspaper subscription? Congratulations, here are nine steps with extra login and more visual obstacles.
The organization Sveriges konsumenter has examined 20 of the most popular services within streaming, audiobooks, and newspapers during the autumn. The short summary? All are more or less bad.
All use misleading design in some way to make cancellations difficult, says Sinan Akdag, digital expert at Sveriges konsumenter.
Worst streaming service
Considering the number of steps required to say goodbye to a service, TV4 Play is the worst in class with 14 steps. But other streaming services like Viaplay and Max also require many steps before the cancellation is complete, eleven for Viaplay and ten for Max.
The number of steps doesn't say everything. But it's clear that it shouldn't take 14 steps to cancel a subscription. Then it's a deliberate way to make cancellations difficult, says Sinan Akdag.
Anna Sandell, communications manager at TV4, says they want to offer customers who are canceling the opportunity to switch packages.
"We are continuously working on our service to make it as attractive and accessible to our users as possible, and it's important for us that our users feel satisfied both when they start an account and when they decide to cancel it," she writes in an email.
Not just clicks
Canceling a service, however, is not just about the number of steps; it can also be full of deceitful sentences, emotionally charged language, and dead ends. Worst when it comes to the "bingo box" is Storytel, which has both excessive steps, dead ends, emotionally charged language, and visual obstacles, according to the investigation.
Storytel themselves say that they are affected by rules from Apple that make the cancellation process longer, but also that they welcome the review.
"We have already implemented several improvements in the cancellation flow and are continuously working on developing and updating our service to better meet our users' needs and expectations," says Johan Littorin, Sweden manager at Storytel in an email.
Sveriges konsumenter want to see legal requirements for simple digital cancellations due to the review.
So many steps are required to cancel the following services:
Streaming services:
Amazon Prime: 11
Apple TV+: 6
Disney+: 8
Max: 10
Netflix: 5
Skyshowtime: 8
TV4 Play: 14
Viaplay: 11
Audiobooks:
Bookbeat: 5
Bokus Play: 8
Nextory: 10
Storytel: 10
Newspapers:
Aftonbladet: 10
Dagens ETC: Requires phone call or email.
Dagens Industri: 6
Dagens Nyheter: 10
Expressen: 7
Göteborgs-Posten: 9
Svenska Dagbladet: 7
Sydsvenskan: 7
Source: Sveriges konsumenter
