Physics Wallah Penalised by CCPA for Sneaking ₹10 Donations into Purchase Carts, Emotional Appeals to Users [Read Order]

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a ₹5 lakh penalty on ed-tech platform PhysicsWallah after finding that the company employed ‘dark pattern practices’ such as, automatically adding ₹10 charitable donations to users' purchase carts and using emotionally persuasive messaging to influence consumer decisions.

The CCPA initiated a suo-motu case against the entity, after examining the platform's checkout interface on PhysicsWallah's website and mobile application.

Three categories of dark patterns were identified and examined by the CCPA.

According to the Authority, PhysicsWallah automatically pre-selected a “Donate for PW Foundation” option during checkout, adding an additional ₹10 to the users’ final payable amount, unless consumers actively deselected it. The Authority noted that the donation mechanism remained operational from February 14, 2024 to December 24, 2025 and collected approximately ₹2.47 crore from over 21.36 lakh users during the period.

The CCPA observed that the collection of donations through a pre-ticked mechanism could not be regarded as free, voluntary and informed consumer consent. It held that the practice amounted to “Basket Sneaking”, since an additional payment was included in the checkout flow without affirmative consumer action.

The Authority further took exception to donation prompts displayed through the “Know More” option, which stated that the PW Foundation supported marriages of needy persons, education of children and healthcare in underserved communities.

According to the CCPA, the messaging employed emotional persuasion and had the tendency to invoke moral pressure and cast emotional obligation upon the consumers to retain the donation amount. Such conduct was deemed to fall within the prohibited category of “Confirm Shaming” as it interfered with free decision-making during the checkout process.

Another issue pertained to PhysicsWallah's “free courses”. CCPA found that users were required to disclose personal information such as mobile numbers and email IDs and create accounts before accessing content advertised as free.

However, the Authority observed that the educational content remained identical across different accounts and PhysicsWallah had failed to demonstrate why such collection of personal information was indispensable for providing the courses. The practice was consequently held to constitute “Forced Action”.

The Bench of Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra observed that manipulative interface practices deployed on a large-scale educational platform catering to students and minors possessed a heightened potential to impair informed decision-making.

PhysicsWallah was deemed to have violated consumer rights under Section 2(9), misleading advertisement provisions under Section 2(28), unfair trade practice provisions under Section 2(47), the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023.

Accordingly, the CCPA directed PhysicsWallah to ensure that no dark patterns are employed on its platform and imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh.

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