A Rent-a-Center Inc. affiliate tricked people into taking out high-cost loans on products they leased and then trapped them into those loans by making it difficult to return those products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.

Acima Holdings LLC and its founder, Aaron Allred, allegedly marketed their services as leases in order to evade consumer financial protection laws, including using digital dark patterns to hide the true costs of using one of the company’s purchase plans to buy home goods.

The company, which Rent-a-Center purchased for $1.65 billion in 2020, then made it difficult for people to return household goods …