The Supreme Court docket on Monday deferred listening to in pleas filed by WhatsApp and its mother or father firm Meta Platforms difficult the ₹213.14 crore penalty by Competitors Fee of India (CCI) over the messaging platform’s 2021 privateness coverage. The matter has now been listed for listening to on 23 February.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, which was earlier anticipated to go instructions within the case, adjourned the listening to as a result of unavailability of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who’s showing for Meta and WhatsApp.
The case pertains to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privateness coverage replace, which allowed the sharing of person information, together with telephone numbers, gadget data and interactions with enterprise accounts with Meta corporations on a “take-it-or-leave-it” foundation. The coverage triggered widespread issues over privateness and competitors.
Appearing on these issues, the CCI took suo motu cognisance in March 2021 and ordered an investigation into whether or not WhatsApp had abused its dominant place within the messaging market. The probe finally led to the imposition of a penalty on Meta and WhatsApp.
Throughout the earlier listening to on 3 February, the Supreme Court docket issued a stern warning to Meta and WhatsApp, indicating that they can’t be permitted to share person information for promoting functions beneath the 2021 coverage. The bench, additionally comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi, informed Meta that any continued sharing of WhatsApp person information for promoting wouldn’t be tolerated.
The court docket had requested Meta and WhatsApp to file an affidavit giving a transparent enterprise that person information wouldn’t be shared for promoting functions, warning that failure to take action may end in dismissal of their pleas. Nevertheless, after the businesses sought time to answer the court docket’s queries, no closing order was handed.
In November 2024, the CCI fined Meta and WhatsApp ₹213.14 crore, holding that WhatsApp abused its dominant place by forcing customers to just accept expanded information sharing with Meta as a situation for persevering with to make use of the app. The regulator discovered the consent obtained beneath the coverage to be coerced and dangerous to competitors.
Meta and WhatsApp challenged the order earlier than the Nationwide Firm Regulation Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). In its 4 November ruling, NCLAT largely upheld the CCI’s findings and the penalty however put aside a five-year ban on WhatsApp sharing person information with Meta corporations for promoting. The tribunal later clarified that person consent is obligatory for each promoting and non-advertising information sharing.
Each Meta and the CCI approached the Supreme Court docket, with the regulator difficult the lifting of the five-year ban and Meta contesting the findings and penalty.
If the apex court docket in the end upholds the CCI’s findings and bars information use for promoting, it may have important implications for Meta’s India enterprise, the place its platforms collectively serve practically 850 million customers.