ACCC 2026-27 Priorities: Dark Patterns and Digital Platforms Enforcement Guide

The ACCC's Compliance and Enforcement Policy for 2026-27 makes it explicit: dark patterns and manipulative digital practices are the #1 enforcement priority for Australia's competition and consumer watchdog. This isn't buried in a footnote — it's front and centre of the ACCC's public enforcement strategy.

For Australian businesses operating digital platforms, e-commerce stores, subscription services, or any consumer-facing website, this priority statement is a direct signal of where enforcement resources are being deployed.

Dark Patterns as the #1 Digital Enforcement Priority

The ACCC's Compliance and Enforcement Policy identifies “manipulative or deceptive online practices, including dark patterns” as a key priority area. ACCC Commissioners have made public statements reinforcing this focus:

• Dark patterns cause widespread consumer harm at scale — a single manipulative checkout flow can affect millions of transactions
• Digital practices are harder for individual consumers to identify and challenge compared to offline deceptive conduct
• International regulatory coordination is increasing — the ACCC is working with the FTC, European Commission, and UK CMA on joint dark pattern enforcement
• The upcoming Unfair Trading Practices Bill gives the ACCC new tools specifically designed for digital manipulation

This priority designation means the ACCC is allocating dedicated staff, budget, and investigative resources specifically to dark pattern detection and enforcement. Proactive website sweeps — where the ACCC scans entire industry sectors for dark patterns without waiting for consumer complaints — are a core part of this strategy.

Priority Area: Subscription Traps

Subscription traps continue to be the ACCC's highest-profile dark pattern enforcement target. The 2026-27 policy specifically identifies:

• Sign-up/cancellation asymmetry: Services that are easy to subscribe to but difficult to cancel — requiring phone calls, multi-step processes, or retention gauntlets when sign-up was one click
• Inadequate renewal notices: Subscriptions that auto-renew without clear, timely notice to the consumer — particularly those that renew at higher prices than the introductory rate
• Free-to-paid conversions: Free trials that automatically convert to paid subscriptions without sufficient disclosure or reminder notices
• Involuntary subscriptions: Services where consumers are enrolled in subscriptions they didn't knowingly agree to — through pre-checked boxes, misleading copy, or confusing opt-in flows

The ACCC's track record in this area is already substantial. The JustAnswer prosecution, the eHarmony investigation, and the Dreamscape Networks infringement notices all targeted subscription trap patterns. The 2026-27 policy signals that this enforcement will intensify — with the ACCC specifically looking for subscription practices that fail to meet the standards that will become mandatory under the UTP Bill's subscription contract requirements.

For detailed guidance on subscription compliance, see our subscription trap compliance guide.

Priority Area: Drip Pricing

Drip pricing — advertising a headline price and then adding mandatory fees through the purchase process — is a longstanding ACCC enforcement target that has been elevated in the 2026-27 policy.

The ACCC is particularly focused on:

• Ticketing and events: Booking fees, service charges, and processing fees added at checkout — the Dendy Cinemas case established the enforcement precedent
• Accommodation and travel: Cleaning fees, resort fees, and other mandatory charges not included in the advertised nightly rate
• E-commerce: Shipping fees, handling charges, and credit card surcharges that only appear at the payment step — a common issue across Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce stores
• Financial products: Administration fees, platform fees, and transaction charges for insurance, superannuation, and investment products

Section 48 of the ACL already requires total price disclosure, and the ACCC has been enforcing it since 2011. The 2026-27 policy signals a step-up in enforcement — from infringement notices (Dendy's $19,800) toward Federal Court proceedings seeking penalties in the millions.

Priority Area: Digital Platforms

The ACCC's enforcement focus extends beyond individual websites to the platforms and ecosystems that enable dark patterns at scale. The 2026-27 policy identifies specific concerns with:

• App store practices: Subscription management friction within iOS and Android app stores, where consumers struggle to find and cancel subscriptions
• Marketplace design: Dark patterns in marketplace interfaces that steer consumers toward sponsored listings without adequate disclosure, or that create false urgency through manipulative design
• Platform defaults: Default settings in digital platforms that favour data collection, subscription continuation, or premium service tiers — requiring consumers to opt out rather than opt in
• Algorithmic steering: AI-driven recommendation systems that steer consumers toward more expensive options or unnecessary add-ons without transparency about the commercial motivation

The ACCC's Digital Platform Services Inquiry, which ran from 2020 to 2025, produced extensive findings on platform-level dark patterns. The 2026-27 enforcement policy translates those findings into action — with the ACCC signalling that platform operators bear responsibility for dark patterns in their ecosystems, not just individual sellers or service providers.

Emerging Focus: AI-Generated Dark Patterns

For the first time, the ACCC's 2026-27 policy explicitly addresses the intersection of artificial intelligence and dark patterns. As businesses deploy AI-powered interfaces — chatbots, recommendation engines, dynamic pricing, personalised content — the potential for automated dark patterns grows.

The ACCC has identified several AI-related dark pattern concerns:

• Personalised manipulation: AI systems that tailor dark patterns to individual consumers based on their browsing history, demographic data, or predicted vulnerability — applying more aggressive urgency tactics to consumers who are more likely to respond to time pressure, for example
• Dynamic pricing: AI-driven pricing engines that adjust prices based on consumer behaviour in ways that could constitute misleading conduct — showing higher prices to consumers who have previously demonstrated willingness to pay more
• Conversational dark patterns: AI chatbots that use manipulative conversation design to steer consumers toward purchases, upgrades, or data sharing — using social pressure, false urgency, or confirm-shaming in natural language interactions
• Opaque recommendations: AI recommendation systems that present sponsored or higher-margin products as “recommended for you” without disclosing the commercial basis for the recommendation

The ACCC's position is that AI-generated dark patterns are subject to the same legal standards as human-designed dark patterns. A misleading representation generated by an AI system is still a misleading representation under s18. The use of AI to optimise manipulation doesn't create a compliance defence — if anything, it demonstrates systematic intent.

The Enforcement Trajectory

The 2026-27 priorities should be read in the context of the ACCC's escalating enforcement trajectory:

• 2020-2022: Information gathering through the Digital Platform Services Inquiry. Dark patterns identified as a concern but limited enforcement.
• 2023-2024: First wave of enforcement. Infringement notices for drip pricing (Dendy) and sneaking (Dreamscape). Kogan prosecution for misleading online pricing. The Qantas $100 million penalty for misleading conduct.
• 2025-2026: Escalation to Federal Court proceedings. Microsoft ($50M+ exposure), JustAnswer subscription trap prosecution, eHarmony investigation. Woolworths and Coles illusory discount cases.
• 2027 onward: UTP Bill commences with 30% turnover penalties. The ACCC has new tools, established precedent, and growing enforcement data.

The trajectory is clear: each year brings more enforcement actions, higher penalties, and broader scope. The 2026-27 policy confirms this is deliberate — the ACCC is building an enforcement framework that becomes progressively more aggressive. For the detailed penalty analysis, see our penalty escalation article.

International Coordination

The ACCC's 2026-27 policy emphasises international regulatory coordination on dark patterns. The ACCC is working with:

• FTC (United States): Sharing enforcement intelligence on global companies operating across both jurisdictions
• European Commission: Coordinating on Digital Services Act enforcement, which includes explicit dark pattern prohibitions
• UK CMA: Aligning enforcement approaches under the UK's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024
• ICPEN: Participating in coordinated international sweeps of dark patterns in online marketplaces

This international coordination means ACCC enforcement actions are informed by global intelligence. A dark pattern that attracts FTC attention in the US is likely to be flagged by the ACCC for Australian consumers. Businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions face coordinated enforcement risk — and the ACCC's enforcement expectations are aligned with the most aggressive international standards.

What This Means for Australian Businesses

The 2026-27 priorities translate into concrete action items for every Australian business with a consumer-facing website:

1. Audit now, not later. The ACCC is conducting proactive website sweeps. Your website may already have been reviewed. Use the audit framework to identify issues before the ACCC does.
2. Subscription flows are ground zero. If you operate a subscription service, cancellation parity is the single highest-priority compliance item. Make cancellation as easy as sign-up. Send renewal notices. Disclose terms prominently.
3. Check your pricing. Every mandatory fee must be included in the displayed price or prominently disclosed alongside it from the first moment a price appears. No exceptions. Section 48 already requires this.
4. Audit third-party tools. Your website includes third-party widgets, plugins, and integrations. You are responsible for the dark patterns they introduce. Audit them.
5. Set up ongoing monitoring. Point-in-time audits aren't enough when the ACCC is running continuous sweeps. Automated scanning catches new dark patterns before the ACCC does.
6. Document your compliance efforts. The ACCC considers compliance culture when seeking penalties. A documented audit trail, remediation timeline, and monitoring setup demonstrates the proactive approach that mitigates enforcement risk.

Get Ahead of Enforcement

The ACCC has told you exactly where it's looking. The UTP Bill tells you exactly what will be prohibited. The penalty trajectory tells you exactly what non-compliance costs.

The only remaining question is whether you act before the ACCC gets to your website, or after.

Run a free TrustScan compliance scan and get your baseline in minutes. The scan analyses your website against all 10 dark pattern categories that the ACCC has identified as enforcement priorities — and maps findings to the ACL sections and UTP Bill provisions that create your legal exposure.

The ACCC is scanning. You should be too.