Compliance domain
Dark patterns, deal value thresholds and endorser liability
900+ obligations
maintained across Central, state and municipal levels
Applies to
Any business dealing with consumers, and any group doing M&A
- 900+
- competition and consumer obligations
- 13
- dark patterns tracked as design-level rules
- Design-stage
- delivery of obligations to product teams
What the domain contains
The obligation groups we maintain
Each of these decomposes into individual obligations with an actor, an action, a trigger and a deadline, cited to the section or rule it comes from.
Merger control notification
Assessment against asset and turnover thresholds plus the deal value threshold introduced in 2023, with suspensory obligations pending approval.
Competition compliance programme
Trade association participation controls, information exchange discipline, pricing and distribution arrangements review.
Advertising substantiation
CCPA guidelines on misleading advertisement, requiring evidence for claims, with liability extending to endorsers and influencers.
Dark patterns
Thirteen specified dark patterns prohibited on any online interface — false urgency, basket sneaking, subscription traps, drip pricing and others.
E-commerce entity duties
Seller disclosure, country of origin, grievance officer, and prohibition on manipulating search results.
Product liability and recall
Manufacturer, seller and service provider liability under the Consumer Protection Act, and recall obligations under sectoral rules.
Why it goes wrong
The failure modes we see most often
Dark patterns rules apply to design decisions
The prohibitions bite on interface patterns product teams ship weekly. Compliance has to reach the design review, not the legal review.
The deal value threshold catches transactions turnover would not
Acquisitions of loss-making but valuable targets now require notification. Deal teams working from the old thresholds miss it.
Greenwashing scrutiny is rising with ESG claims
Sustainability claims in advertising are now assessed under the same substantiation standard as any performance claim.
Coverage
Principal legislation in this domain
A representative list. State variants of each are maintained separately, because they differ in ways that matter operationally.
- Competition Act, 2002 (as amended 2023)
- Consumer Protection Act, 2019
- E-Commerce Rules, 2020
- CCPA Dark Patterns Guidelines, 2023
- Advertising Standards guidelines
Explore the full library in the regulation explorer, or see the compliance calendar for what falls due next.
Across industries
This domain does not care what you manufacture
Domain obligations apply by activity, headcount, turnover and location — not by sector code. What changes between industries is how much of the domain lands on you, and which sectoral rules stack on top.
Other domains
The rest of the stack
Corporate & Secretarial
The obligations that attach to the entity, whatever it makes
11,200+ obligations across statesLabour & Employment
Four Codes, thirty-six sets of state rules, one payroll
4,600+ obligationsEHS & Environment
Consents, waste, emissions and the compensation formula
2,100+ obligationsData, Privacy & Cyber
DPDP, CERT-In and a sectoral layer on top
3,300+ obligationsTax, GST & Customs
One company, many GSTINs, and a re-sectioned Income-tax Act
2,800+ obligationsProduct Standards & Quality
QCOs, labelling and the six-month window before your product is illegal
5,400+ obligationsSectoral Licensing
The licence conditions nobody reads after the licence is granted
See competition & consumer obligations scoped to your sites
We configure your entities, locations and states, and show you exactly which obligations in this domain land where — including the ones nobody currently owns.