In digital marketplaces, subtle interface manipulations—commonly termed dark patterns—are increasingly used to steer consumer behaviour. While their behavioural efficacy is established, their deeper relational consequences remain underexplored. This study theorises dark patterns not merely as functional nudges but as relational infractions that rupture consumer-brand identification. We noticed that perceived dishonesty promotes symbolic incongruity, brand distrust, and subsequently drives complaining behavior online. Online complaining, however, played a significant mediating role in changing affective disidentification into consumer exit. This research integrates moral dissonance theory with affective brand disidentification and resistance to digital manipulation, proposing a process model linking interface design to consumer defection. These insights repurpose digital interfaces not as passive frameworks for trade but as active ethical battlegrounds where trust is either established or lost.