Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors

Sanju Ahuja; Johanna Gunawan; Nataliia Bielova; Cristiana Teixeira Santos

doi:10.1145/3772318.3791479

Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors

Sanju Ahuja^*
, Johanna Gunawan
, Nataliia Bielova^*
, Cristiana Teixeira Santos

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceeding › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Dark patterns are design practices that undermine users' ability to make autonomous and informed choices in digital experiences. The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to protect users from such designs and their effects, with Article 25 prohibiting three autonomy violation types: deception, manipulation and distortion/impairment. Demonstrating such regulatory violations, however, requires design-oriented reasoning necessary to articulate why an observed design practice constitutes a specific autonomy violation type. This paper maps 59 known dark patterns onto the three autonomy violation types from the DSA and identifies eight new design factors which can help determine when a dark pattern violates autonomy. Our mapping of dark patterns to autonomy violations grounds ongoing regulatory debates in design while opening pathways for translational research that reimagines how HCI engages with the governance of design practices.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Nuria Oliver, David A. Shamma, Heloisa Candello, Pablo Cesar, Pedro Lopes, Alessandro Bozzon, Thomas Kosch, Vera Liao, Xiaojuan Ma, Valentino Artizzu, Fiona Draxler, Gustavo Lopez, Anke V. Reinschluessel, Xin Tong, Phoebe O. Toups Dugas
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	1-30
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400722783
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791479
Publication status	Published - 13 Apr 2026
Event	2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2026 - Barcelona, Spain Duration: 13 Apr 2026 → 17 Apr 2026 https://chi2026.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2026
Abbreviated title	CHI2026
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Barcelona
Period	13/04/26 → 17/04/26
Internet address	https://chi2026.acm.org/

Keywords

autonomy violations
dark patterns
deceptive design
Digital Services Act

Access to Document

10.1145/3772318.3791479Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Ahuja, S., Gunawan, J., Bielova, N., & Santos, C. T. (2026). Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. In N. Oliver, D. A. Shamma, H. Candello, P. Cesar, P. Lopes, A. Bozzon, T. Kosch, V. Liao, X. Ma, V. Artizzu, F. Draxler, G. Lopez, A. V. Reinschluessel, X. Tong, & P. O. Toups Dugas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-30). Article 1279 Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791479

Ahuja, Sanju ; Gunawan, Johanna ; Bielova, Nataliia et al. / Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act : Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. editor / Nuria Oliver ; David A. Shamma ; Heloisa Candello ; Pablo Cesar ; Pedro Lopes ; Alessandro Bozzon ; Thomas Kosch ; Vera Liao ; Xiaojuan Ma ; Valentino Artizzu ; Fiona Draxler ; Gustavo Lopez ; Anke V. Reinschluessel ; Xin Tong ; Phoebe O. Toups Dugas. New York : Association for Computing Machinery, 2026. pp. 1-30

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abstract = "Dark patterns are design practices that undermine users' ability to make autonomous and informed choices in digital experiences. The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to protect users from such designs and their effects, with Article 25 prohibiting three autonomy violation types: deception, manipulation and distortion/impairment. Demonstrating such regulatory violations, however, requires design-oriented reasoning necessary to articulate why an observed design practice constitutes a specific autonomy violation type. This paper maps 59 known dark patterns onto the three autonomy violation types from the DSA and identifies eight new design factors which can help determine when a dark pattern violates autonomy. Our mapping of dark patterns to autonomy violations grounds ongoing regulatory debates in design while opening pathways for translational research that reimagines how HCI engages with the governance of design practices.",

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note = "Funding Information: This work has been supported by the ANR 22-PECY-0002 IPoP (Interdisciplinary Project on Privacy) project of the Cybersecurity PEPR, ANR MRSEI TULIP (ANR-24-MRS0-0004), Inria DATA4US Exploratory Action project, and Inria International Chair funding Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).; 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2026, CHI2026 ; Conference date: 13-04-2026 Through 17-04-2026",

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Ahuja, S, Gunawan, J, Bielova, N & Santos, CT 2026, Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. in N Oliver, DA Shamma, H Candello, P Cesar, P Lopes, A Bozzon, T Kosch, V Liao, X Ma, V Artizzu, F Draxler, G Lopez, AV Reinschluessel, X Tong & PO Toups Dugas (eds), Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 1279, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, pp. 1-30, 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2026, Barcelona, Spain, 13/04/26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791479

Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. / Ahuja, Sanju; Gunawan, Johanna; Bielova, Nataliia et al.
Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Nuria Oliver; David A. Shamma; Heloisa Candello; Pablo Cesar; Pedro Lopes; Alessandro Bozzon; Thomas Kosch; Vera Liao; Xiaojuan Ma; Valentino Artizzu; Fiona Draxler; Gustavo Lopez; Anke V. Reinschluessel; Xin Tong; Phoebe O. Toups Dugas. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2026. p. 1-30 1279.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceeding › Academic › peer-review

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N1 - Funding Information: This work has been supported by the ANR 22-PECY-0002 IPoP (Interdisciplinary Project on Privacy) project of the Cybersecurity PEPR, ANR MRSEI TULIP (ANR-24-MRS0-0004), Inria DATA4US Exploratory Action project, and Inria International Chair funding Publisher Copyright: © 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

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N2 - Dark patterns are design practices that undermine users' ability to make autonomous and informed choices in digital experiences. The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to protect users from such designs and their effects, with Article 25 prohibiting three autonomy violation types: deception, manipulation and distortion/impairment. Demonstrating such regulatory violations, however, requires design-oriented reasoning necessary to articulate why an observed design practice constitutes a specific autonomy violation type. This paper maps 59 known dark patterns onto the three autonomy violation types from the DSA and identifies eight new design factors which can help determine when a dark pattern violates autonomy. Our mapping of dark patterns to autonomy violations grounds ongoing regulatory debates in design while opening pathways for translational research that reimagines how HCI engages with the governance of design practices.

AB - Dark patterns are design practices that undermine users' ability to make autonomous and informed choices in digital experiences. The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to protect users from such designs and their effects, with Article 25 prohibiting three autonomy violation types: deception, manipulation and distortion/impairment. Demonstrating such regulatory violations, however, requires design-oriented reasoning necessary to articulate why an observed design practice constitutes a specific autonomy violation type. This paper maps 59 known dark patterns onto the three autonomy violation types from the DSA and identifies eight new design factors which can help determine when a dark pattern violates autonomy. Our mapping of dark patterns to autonomy violations grounds ongoing regulatory debates in design while opening pathways for translational research that reimagines how HCI engages with the governance of design practices.

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A2 - Shamma, David A.

A2 - Candello, Heloisa

A2 - Cesar, Pablo

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A2 - Kosch, Thomas

A2 - Liao, Vera

A2 - Ma, Xiaojuan

A2 - Artizzu, Valentino

A2 - Draxler, Fiona

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Ahuja S, Gunawan J, Bielova N, Santos CT. Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. In Oliver N, Shamma DA, Candello H, Cesar P, Lopes P, Bozzon A, Kosch T, Liao V, Ma X, Artizzu V, Draxler F, Lopez G, Reinschluessel AV, Tong X, Toups Dugas PO, editors, Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. 2026. p. 1-30. 1279 doi: 10.1145/3772318.3791479

Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors

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