The problem is, regulatory agencies are slow as molasses and courts are overloaded with crap, which means by the time the process is done years later, the companies have long since switched to yet another sleazebag tactic.
The problem is, regulatory agencies are slow as molasses and courts are overloaded with crap, which means by the time the process is done years later, the companies have long since switched to yet another sleazebag tactic.
Businesses have brand reputations. Just let people vote with their wallets. That won't discourage all dark patterns, but is preferable to a world of over-regulation.
See also: Google, Amazon, etc. The laissez-faire voting with wallets approach has failed time and again. It doesn't seem to discourage dark patterns at all. I'd love to use companies with less infuriating interfaces but they can't compete.
I'm not too concerned about over-regulation. I don't think there's much innovation possible in the renting rooms to the public space; the biggest change I've seen recently is in more dark manipulation of customer behaviour. However, perhaps there's an alternative to having governments regulate UI design, like requiring 3rd-party API access.