Medianama’s Take: The WhatsApp–Meta appeal is not only about a Rs 213 crore penalty. It also concerns how India defines and regulates data in digital markets. Meta’s counsel told the tribunal, “By leveraging user data from WhatsApp, Meta can enhance its technology. It’s collected by me, it’s my personal property. Shall I give it to my competitors?” He cast user data as private property.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI), however, treated the same data as a competitive resource that entrenches dominance and blocks rivals, and it argued that this makes it subject to antitrust scrutiny.
This clash shows why privacy and competition cannot operate in silos. The CCI stepped into a space usually reserved for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and it used competition law to police data-sharing because the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) has not yet been tested. Moreover, the CCI argued that weak privacy standards not only harm users but also create entry barriers for competitors. Meta, by contrast, insisted that the regulator has no mandate over privacy and that it stretched Section 4 of the Competition Act beyond its scope.
The stakes extend well beyond WhatsApp’s business model. If the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upholds the CCI’s order, it will legitimise this overlap and give the competition regulator direct authority over privacy-linked conduct. If it strikes the order down, India will instead be left without ex-ante competition rules or strong privacy enforcement, which will leave users exposed and rivals disadvantaged. Therefore, the ruling will not just shape WhatsApp’s future in its largest market; it will also decide how India builds a coherent system for regulating digital platforms.
What’s the News
Meta and WhatsApp are challenging a Rs 213.14 crore penalty from the Competition Commission of India before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.
In 2024, the CCI ruled that WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update forced users to accept broader data collection and mandatory sharing with other Meta companies. The regulator said this created entry barriers in online display advertising and ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data for ads for five years, give users an opt-out option, and explain clearly what data it shares and why.
Meta and WhatsApp appealed the order. NCLAT stayed the five-year ban, warning that it could “collapse the business model” of a free service, but it refused to stay the fine. Meta has already paid 25% of the penalty and must deposit another 25% to keep the stay.
WhatsApp insists 2016 opt-out still holds for Indian users
Senior advocate Arun Kathpalia, representing WhatsApp, told the tribunal that the 2021 update did not expand the scope of data collection compared to the 2016 policy. He argued that the CCI had confused greater detail with greater intrusion. “In 2016 we already…
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