“Something Is Happening Here but You Don’t Know What It Is. Do You, Mrs. Jones?” Dark Patterns as an Antitrust Violation

Internet users surfing from one website to another, or using various web-enabled applications, regularly encounter “dark patterns” — web-design choices that trick users into unknowingly providing more time, money, or attention than they realize. Dark patterns thus manipulate users, impairing their ability to exercise free choice and to express their actual preferences. Their use on the web is pervasive. Moreover, as artificial intelligence develops and as the “internet of things” rolls