[gabemart]

>Seems pretty clear to me.

I consider myself a fairly savvy internet user, and, even knowing it was there, it took me a good 20 seconds or so to find the part about a monthly charge in the image you posted.

The user attention is focused on the "continue checkout" box. It looks very similar to a part of the checkout flow at most other online retailers. Nothing in that box indicates a monthly charge. Nothing in that box even indicates that there's a choice between VIP and non-VIP. This information is relegated to the sidebar. In most websites, the sidebar contains non-critical supplementary information. Titling the sidebar with "VIP membership program" suggests to the user that the sidebar contains information on an opt-in (rather than opt-out) program that they can safely ignore if they just want to buy a pair of shoes.

It looks to me exactly like a dark pattern designed to trick the user into signing up for the monthly service without realizing what they are doing.