American tech giant Meta may find it tough to get interim relief against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) Rs 213-crore penalty on it for its alleged abuse of the dominant position of its messaging app WhatsApp, according to competition law experts.
“It would not be easy for the appeal court to disagree with the CCI’s view on Meta coercing Whatsapp users to consent to the 2021 privacy policy given it had opt-out provisions for users in other countries. India would be reluctant to send a message that it is willing to allow user data to be commercially exploited without free and informed consent,” said Vivek Agarwal, partner at DMD Advocates.
Also ReadUK-India Free Trade Agreement to relaunch in early 2025: What’s at stake?
Given the magnitude of remedies mentioned by CCI, Meta’s immediate focus would be to secure some interim protection from the appeal court. For instance, the CCI order said that WhatsApp will not share user data collected on its platform with other Meta companies or Meta company products for advertising purposes for a period of 5 years from the date of receipt of the order.
“Meta is likely to push for some immediate relief on the ground that the remedy of imposing a complete embargo on WhatsApp to share its user data with other Meta companies is disproportionate. Without securing some interim protection, Meta would be obliged to comply with the CCI order within three months,” said Agarwal.
Also ReadMeeting the needs of global Indian diaspora: International festive deliveries for cross-border celebration
Experts said that instead of putting embargo on Meta to stop sharing data with other company platforms, CCI could have also suggested Meta to give options to its users to pay for its services or “opt-in” for data sharing mechanism. “When user data is used for purpose other than advertising, CCI should have given option to WhatsApp to either require the users who don’t agree to sharing of data to pay for the services or refrain from using its services. Since data is the price user pays for the services of WhatsApp, it would have been appropriate to give the company this option rather than allowing it to terminate service to such users altogether,” said former member of the commission Augustine Peter.
» Read More
