An appeal by Meta Platforms against a ruling by India’s competition authority that penalized the US tech giant for allegedly abusing its dominant position is scheduled to be heard by a bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ( NCLAT ) on January 16.In response to the Competition Commission of India’s ruling regarding the purported misuse of WhatsApp’s privacy policy, Meta Platforms filed an appeal with the NCLAT on Monday.
After the Competition Commission of India ( CCI ) ordered Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, to pay a penalty of ₹213.14 crore for abusing its dominant position in connection with the 2021 privacy policy update of its messaging app WhatsApp, the company filed an appeal with the NCLAT on Monday.
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According to a statement released by the authority on November 18, 2024, the CCI ordered WhatsApp to refrain from sharing user data for advertising purposes with other Meta firms or products for a period of five years. According to the CCI, Meta is a major force in online display advertising and internet-based communications via WhatsApp.
According to the CCI, WhatsApp’s policy should provide a thorough justification of the user data supplied with Meta group companies or products, outlining the objective, for purposes other than advertising.
Additionally, the regulator stated that consumers in India should not be required to share their WhatsApp user data with other Meta businesses or products for purposes other than offering WhatsApp services. Like other nations, the directive maintains user consent as a fundamental tenet in the operations of social media behemoths.
Germany’s data protection commissioner temporarily prohibited Facebook from handling user WhatsApp data in December 2021. Prior to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) being implemented in 2018, WhatsApp was fined by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission in 2021 for updating its privacy policy to require users to accept these conditions, as reported by Mint on October 14.
WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update included how companies might preserve and manage their WhatsApp conversations with clients using Facebook-hosted services. The antitrust watchdog came to the conclusion that WhatsApp unfairly favored Meta over rival platforms by disclosing user business transaction information.
The CCI claimed that by requiring all users to accept extended data collection terms and the sharing of data inside the Meta group without any opt-out, WhatsApp’s policy update, which was offered on a “take it or leave it” basis, imposed an unfair condition. The regulator claimed that this amounted to an abuse of Meta’s dominant position and compromised user autonomy.
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The privacy of users’ private messages was unaffected by the 2021 policy amendment, according to Meta, which insisted that user privacy is a primary concern. The business made it clear that consumers may keep using WhatsApp without losing functionality or having their accounts canceled if they disagreed with the revised policy.
As per the report of livemint.com, the CCI stated that an unreasonable condition was imposed by WhatsApp’s policy update, which was offered on a “take it or leave it” basis. It required all users to consent to extended data collecting terms and data sharing without the option to opt out. Noting the case’s ramifications and the stakes, Meta requested that the NCLAT hear it immediately. The hearing was set on January 16 after the NCLAT bench, presided over by Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhushan, agreed.
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