Zepto CEO admits dark pattern ‘mistake’ as company rolls back controversial features

New Delhi: Zepto chief executive Aadit Palicha has acknowledged that dark patterns on the quick-commerce platform were a “mistake”, adding that the company has since withdrawn them.

In a conversation with Forbes India, the 23-year-old addressed user concerns that had intensified across social media in recent months. Complaints against Zepto included hidden fees, selective pricing, MRP discrepancies and misleading discount structures.

The criticism grew to the point where Reddit users created a dedicated community to track what they described as unethical app behaviour, highlighting charges such as a ‘Rain Fee’, a GST component on that fee, a Rs 10 ‘Cash Handling Fee’, ‘Item Handling Cost’, ‘Convenience Fee’, ‘Small Cart Fee’, ‘Processing Fee’ and others, in addition to delivery charges.

Palicha said the company had been testing different fee structures, acknowledging that several approaches had not been well received. “I think we ran experiments on delivery fees and pricing, we tried different approaches and figured things out,” he said, noting that the response from customers had been “valid”.

“A lot of it wasn’t received well on social media or by consumers, and honestly, much of the feedback was valid,” he added. He clarified that the decision to remove the features was voluntary rather than regulatory.

“There wasn’t any regulatory angle to it, it had nothing to do with government intervention. We just felt it wasn’t the right thing for consumers. The feedback was negative so we voluntarily decided to roll it back. Within 45–60 days, we had addressed it and moved on.”

Palicha also said certain issues, such as the expired-product criticism, were overstated but conceded that the design choices linked to dark patterns needed correction.

“Things like the expired product issue were a bit blown out of proportion. But the dark patterns concern was something we genuinely could have solved, and we did. I’ll be candid: It was a mistake. We killed it. It won’t happen again,” he said. Earlier this month, Zepto removed all handling fees, surge charges and convenience fees as part of a broader pricing reset.