Unlautere digitale Entscheidungsarchitekturen

Alexander Egberts examines "dark patterns" in consumer-related commercial practices and analyzes digital choice architectures in the German and European digital market. He combines doctrinal legal analysis with insights from behavioral economics and interaction design in order to assess the mechanisms of digital interfaces from a legal perspective. The study first develops an abstract and general concept designed to structure a discourse that has so far remained terminologically imprecise. "Dark patterns" are identified through three channels of influence: they disrupt information flows, shape decisions at a pre-reflective level, or hinder the achievement of users' goals. In doing so, they impair usability or procedural autonomy while structurally favoring entrepreneurial interests. Building on this foundation, the author translates the concept into an analysis under unfair competition law. The need for legal intervention arises from the risk of behavioral market failure: "dark patterns" undermine consumers' autonomous decision-making and thereby weaken the market's competitive steering function. Although the prohibitions of misleading and aggressive commercial practices provide important protections, they exhibit structural gaps with regard to this subject matter. The study therefore focuses on the consumer-protective general clause, whose requirements of professional diligence are specified with the help of interdisciplinary insights. Particular importance is attributed to commercial relevance as a probabilistic question of causation. This approach opens the assessment of unfairness to empirical evidence concerning the effects of digital design elements. Alexander Egberts specifically examines A/B testing procedures as a source of insight into behavioral effects, analyzes their procedural treatment, and evaluates empirical studies. In this way, the work contributes to the theoretical foundation, doctrinal refinement, and evidence-based enforcement of fair competitive conditions in the digital sphere.