CCPA Fines Rapido ₹10 Lakh Over Misleading Tipping Prompts, Dark Patterns

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a ₹10 lakh penalty on Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, the company that runs the ride-hailing platform Rapido, over misleading prompts and design features that pushed riders to pay more before their trips were confirmed.

The order, passed by the authority headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, cites misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices, unfair contract terms and dark patterns. It follows a sector-wide review by the CCPA of cab and bike-taxi aggregators, focused on pre-ride tipping and dynamic pricing.

Prompts found to amount to confirm shaming

During its examination, the CCPA found that the Rapido app showed messages such as "Higher the price, higher the chance of getting a ride" and "Captains aren't accepting at ₹60. Try adding +10, +20, +30" while a booking was still being processed.

The regulator noted that the platform first quoted a fare and, once the rider had booked at that price, urged them to pay more on the ground that captains were not accepting the original amount. According to the CCPA, this created a false impression that a rider's chances of securing a ride quickly depended on paying extra — at a stage when the rider had already committed to the booking and had little room to negotiate.

The authority classified the practice as "confirm shaming", a dark pattern listed under the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023, because it manufactures urgency and a fear of losing the ride if the consumer does not agree to pay more.

Colour-coded slider flagged as interface interference

The CCPA also examined Rapido's "Set your price" slider and found that its colour scheme influenced pricing decisions. Increasing the fare displayed a message about a "higher chance of getting a ride" in green, while lowering it triggered a red or orange warning. The slider also offered more room to raise the price than to reduce it.

This, the regulator held, amounted to a second dark pattern — "interface interference" — as the interface design visually steered consumers towards paying more, independent of the accompanying text.

Advance payment not a genuine tip

The CCPA observed that the fare shown at the time of booking already accounts for distance, time, traffic, tolls and the amount payable to the captain, leaving no justification for asking the rider to pay extra for the same trip before it had begun. A tip, it noted, is ordinarily a voluntary payment made after a service has been rendered and should not be presented as a condition for receiving the service.

The authority also pointed to the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, which require any tipping feature to be offered only after a ride is completed, and not at the time of booking or during the trip.

Rapido argued that tipping is voluntary, that its matching algorithm works regardless of whether a rider pays more, and that the prompts merely reflected real-time negotiation similar to an offline conversation between a rider and a driver. The CCPA rejected these submissions, holding that the timing and design of the prompts pressured riders at the moment they were most dependent on the platform. It further noted that Rapido had placed no data on record to show that paying extra actually improves the likelihood of getting a ride, making the claim unsubstantiated and misleading.

Wider scrutiny of ride-hailing platforms

The action against Rapido is part of the CCPA's broader examination of advance-tipping and dark-pattern practices across ride-hailing and bike-taxi services. Notices were earlier issued to Uber, Ola, Rapido and Namma Yatri, directing them to comply with the 2023 dark patterns guidelines and file self-declarations on compliance. The CCPA's examination of Uber and Ola is still ongoing.

Invoking its mandate under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the authority said it would continue to act against unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements. Consumers can register complaints about misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices or dark patterns through the National Consumer Helpline at 1915 or by writing to com-ccpa[at]gov[dot]in. The final order is available on the CCPA website.