Material scope : the interplay with GDPR and UCPDArt. 23a, § 2 DSA stipulates that the prohibition of dark patterns does not apply to the practices covered by the Unfair Commercial Practice Directive (UCPD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is probably the provision that undermines the most the DSA’s impact over dark patterns’ regulation. By excluding from its scope of application the practices already failing under those two existing legislations (which have no express reference to dark patterns and already proved their ineffectiveness to address such practices), the DSA merely provides a subsidiary prohibition alongside a broad definition of dark patterns. It fails to establish clear criteria to distinguish illegal practices from legitimate one (although that was a concern in recital 51b) and make the concrete regulation of dark patterns dependant on EC’s guidelines. Besides the long time required to issue them, there is a risk that those guidelines will mainly address specific dark patterns – like those already listed in article 23, §3 – rather than providing an exhaustive solution addressing the actual diversity of dark patterns (see, the dark pattern’s taxonomy used in a recent EC study). For the time being, interface designers will have to keep on relying on the existing guidance under the UCPD and the GDPR.While many are still placing their hope in the DSA for bringing a stronger regulation on dark patterns, it rather seems that this text will fail to meet those expectations.