Fabian Ziermann‘s recent article, entitled ‘Dark patterns: Can criminal law remedy the shortcomings of antitrust law?’ was published in the New Journal of European Criminal Law. The article examines how Austrian criminal law can address dark patterns in Big Tech and video games that mislead users to make purchases. Fabian argues that antitrust law may not be sufficient to curb these practices, illustrated by Amazon’s marketplace, Google’s search, and Activision Blizzard’s (now Microsoft’s) in-game purchases in video games. He proposes and tests whether dark patterns constitute criminal fraud under §§ 146, 148 of the Austrian Criminal Code.
The open access article is available here.