[horsawlarway]

I mostly agree with you, but I think there are forms of this that I would definitely consider dark patterns -

The one that immediately jumps to mind is "Add this item to your cart to see the price".

There's no good intention there, just manipulation. The statistics show a user is more likely to buy an item after adding it to their cart, and this forces them to do that before revealing pertinent information to the user.

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Basically - If it's not a solution that can be customized to the user/customer, I find hiding the price is almost always a dark pattern.

If it is a solution that can be customized, it may or may not be a dark pattern, but I still tend to avoid companies that do this - it often means they want additional information from me, or that they're hoping additional sales and marketing information will make me less price sensitive before showing me the final price.

[humbledrone]

While the "add to cart to see price" pattern may be dark, it's worth noting that the retail seller that makes you do this is probably not the party who's responsible for the pattern. It turns out that some manufacturers make the retailer agree to not advertise a price lower than MSRP. But, though they cannot /advertise/ a price below MSRP, they can /sell/ at a price below MSRP. I guess it's generally accepted that showing you a different price after you've added the item to your cart doesn't technically count as "advertising" the lower price.

https://www.consumerreports.org/online-shopping/why-do-i-hav...

[rdtwo]

I know a successful business owner who uses this feature to then pay a tracking service to grab your email then spam progressive cart reminder and discounts in hopes of converting a sale. He says it’s very effective

[toomuchtodo]

Showing a price after an item is in the cart can be a contract hack around pricing contracts with manufacturers or distributors, where you’re not able to directly advertise your “best” price.

[irscott]

Most of the time this is referred to as a MAP agreement and companies can be real aggressive in enforcing them.