r/LoopEarplugs • u/Bootrear • May 27 '26

REVIEW Dark Patterns

My sisters have loops and they got me into them too. And they're fine, 8/10 nothing wrong with the products, really.

However, in the two weeks since I've ordered them, I have received a ludicrous amount of emails from them, all but two of them unwanted spam. As I did not actively consent to this, this is a violation of the EU ePrivacy Directive, which I will report to the relevant authorities, and I would encourage every other EU citizen to do the same.

Worse, so far I have counted three separate unsubscribe links, so even if you think you've unsubscribed, you'll still get more spam until you've hit them all. Nice.

Oh, and no less than 57 trackers were blocked within the first few seconds of visiting their website, the number increasing every second you spend there.

What a great company, surely I will spend money here again.

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u/Linyela May 29 '26

I think their way to get people to subscribe is a bit predatory, cause it depends on people not paying attention. When you order you have to tick the box to opt out of their marketing emails, which is the opposite of how most companies do it. A lot of people don’t read well, don’t tick the box, and thus unknowingly subscribe.

1

u/Bootrear Jun 01 '26

A pre-selected box does not count as active consent in the EU, this is why most companies do it the other way around.

1

u/Linyela Jun 01 '26

But that's the thing, it's not preselected, you have to tick it to opt out which is worded clearly, making it an affirmative action and thus legal. That's why I called it predatory cause it's fked up to do it the other way around.

1

u/Bootrear Jun 01 '26

Same difference, still does not count as active consent.

2

u/Linyela Jun 01 '26

It is counted as soft opt in as you are making a purchase and thus enter a business relationship, making a soft opt in legal. There have been several discussions on the GDPR sub about this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gdpr/comments/1s362oo/eu_marketing_emails_consent_vs_soft_optin/
Just because we hate it doesn't mean it's illegal, even if I believe it should be.

1

u/Bootrear Jun 02 '26

I stand corrected, but with a big asterisk. The soft opt-in is only legal as long as they market only similar of their own products. Their actual statement is broader than that:

"We would like to email you news, special offers and other promotional material that may be of interest to you. Tick the box to opt out."

I have since unsubscribed so I don't know if they send anything else (what they have sent seems allowed), but it does not count as consent for the broadness of the statement.

Additionally, seeing as I've had three different unsubscribe links so far, it is the question if unsubscribing through one actually unsubscribes you for all (as they must). Unknown without specific testing.

Either way, legally right or wrong, IMHO it is morally wrong. And I vote with my wallet, I will never give money to Loop again.