Meta has filed an appeal with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against a ₹213.14 crore penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The fine is in connection with WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy update, which the CCI deemed an abuse of Meta’s dominant market position.
The social media giant has requested an urgent hearing, arguing that the CCI order could have broad implications for the entire tech industry.
A bench of the NCLAT is set to hear the case on January 16. The NCLAT bench, led by Chairperson Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhushan, is likely to hear the matter.
The anti-trust regulator is probing the privacy policy of the company, which it stated appears to be neither transparent nor based on the voluntary consent of users. The CCI had said such a policy could lead to excessive data collection and "stalking" of consumers for targeted advertising to bring in more users, constituting an alleged abuse of its dominant position.
In January 2021, following news reports, the CCI, on its own, decided to investigate WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy. The regulator observed that users were not provided with an appropriate granular choice to object to or opt out of specific data-sharing terms.
WhatsApp and Facebook subsequently challenged the CCI’s March 2021 single-judge order directing a probe against them, arguing that the issue concerning its new policy was already under consideration by the High Court (HC) and Supreme Court (SC).
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