PhysicsWallah auto-added a ₹10 donation at checkout — CCPA called it basket sneaking

PhysicsWallah — the Indian edtech firm known as PW — sells courses and test prep online. At checkout, its platform added a pre-selected 'Donate for PW Foundation' option that put ₹10 towards a charity donation without any explicit consent from the buyer. The prompt stayed live until 24 December 2025, even after the CCPA had taken notice of it.

Declining was discouraged with emotional prompts about children's education, healthcare and marriages, which the CCPA classified as confirm shaming, while the automatic donation itself was basket sneaking. A third pattern was forced action: courses advertised as 'free' demanded the user's mobile number and email address even though the content was identical without handing over data.

On 1 June 2026 the CCPA imposed a ₹5 lakh penalty for violating the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020 and the Dark Patterns Guidelines 2023. It directed PhysicsWallah to ensure no dark patterns are deployed on any digital interface and to file a compliance report within 15 days. Consent, the order said, requires clear affirmative action — pre-selection is not consent.