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Anti-consumer practices
233D Printing Restrictions and Bans is a practice in which businesses, platforms, or governments impose legal, technical, or policy-based limitations on how consumer 3D printers may be used. These…
Apps running on Android and potentially other operating systems (OS) can detect if the device has been modded and refuse to function if that is the case. This can happen if the device allows the user…
Bait-and-switch is the action of advertising goods that are an apparent bargain, with the intention of substituting inferior or more expensive goods. The measures against this practice depend greatly…
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a financing option for online purchases that allows consumers to pay for items in four installments. Companies such as Klarna, Affirm, PayPal, and Apple Pay offer Buy…
A "buy one, get one free" deal (abbreviated BOGO) is a form of sales promotion wherein a second unit of a good is sold for free only if the first unit is bought at full price. This can be used as a…
Consent-or-pay, also known as consent-or-okay, is a business model implemented in response to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under this model, users of a website are…
A dark pattern is a manipulative design practice that tricks or influences users into making decisions that may not align with their true preferences or interests. These techniques exploit cognitive…
Deceptive language used by companies to impede the rights of consumers while appearing benevolent comes in many forms. Many of them can be boiled down to a few principles.
Digital rights management (DRM), alternatively known as digital restrictions management, broadly refers to any kind of access control technology that is used to deliberately restrict the usage of…
Disabling online features in retaliation is a practice in which businesses deny access to online functionality because the user of a product did not adhere to terms or policies unrelated to the…
Discontinuation bricking occurs when a product is rendered non-functional ("bricked") because the manufacturer has decided to discontinue it. Discontinuation bricking usually occurs in products that…
False advertising is an illegal business strategy where a consumer is lied to or otherwise mislead with the intention of increasing the probability that they will purchase a product.
Feature Ransom is a form of rights stripping when core functionality is restricted or removed unless users accept new terms or conditions.
Features on Demand (FoD), also called On-Demand Features (ODF) or Functions on Demand, refers to the process in which businesses provide a particular function or feature that can be added whenever…
Forced app download is a practice committed by businesses and government entities where users must download an app on their smartphones to perform simple tasks that may have otherwise been possible…
A game-of-telephone is a children's game that originates from China; where a starting message is passed through to multiple people. Then once the final message has been passed it's compared against…
Main article: End-user license agreement End-User License Agreements are often purposefully obfuscated through legal and technical language to hide terms and permissions that negatively affect the…
[[Category: incidents]] Dynamic Security is a technology implemented by HP in some of their printers to restrict the use of aftermarket cartridges. This technology ensures that only original…
Inactive account deletion is where accounts get deleted after being unused, with the time-frame often being from 6 months to 5 years.
Legal Lockout is a form of rights stripping where terms are implemented that modify users' legal rights or access to legal remedies. A common legal lockout practice is to implement forced arbitration…
Malicious compliance is an action where one complies with a request or demand, but in such a way that it follows the wording, but not the spirit or intent of the mandate. Applied to consumer rights…
Retailers requiring police reports for missing items in orders is a practice in which businesses ask customers to file a police report before they will process a refund or replacement for goods…
Rights stripping is the systematic removal or reduction of consumer rights through agreement modifications.