Supreme Court Uphelds Delhi High Court Dismissal of WhatsApp Challenge to CCI Probe into Privacy Policy

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Khushi Bajpai

Published on: 15th October, 2022 at 20:09 IST

Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Meta Networks Inc’s appeals against the Competition Commission of India‘s (CCI) investigation into WhatsApp’s revised privacy policy for 2021. Meta Platforms Inc. is the parent firm of the social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp.

The petitions against the Delhi High Court decision upholding the investigation ordered by the chief national competition regulator were dismissed by a bench of Justices M R Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia on the grounds that the CCI is an independent authority and the proceedings before it cannot be stopped.

“We’ve listened to the advice. There is no need to request this court’s intervention. The 2002 Competition Act’s requirements may be broken, and the CCI is an independent body with the jurisdiction to investigate such violations. The CCI cannot be convinced to stop looking into and making allegations.”

The bench stated that any observations made by the high court should be viewed as preliminary.

On September 28, the Delhi High Court denied Facebook India’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India‘s (CCI) investigation into WhatsApp’s revised privacy policy from 2021.

Facebook India sought the single judge bench after the high court’s division bench in August denied its request for impleadment in a related case and allowed it the freedom to contest the CCI order through a separate writ petition.

A solitary judge’s decision to deny WhatsApp and Facebook Inc.’s appeals against the division bench’s dismissal of their challenges to the CCI investigation into the instant messaging platform’s

Facebook Inc.’s Indian subsidiary, Facebook India, has stated that the CCI has included Facebook Inc. and WhatsApp in its ongoing inquiry even though it hasn’t produced any prima facie evidence against either company. Facebook Inc. is situated in the US and is now known as Meta Platforms.

A single High Court judge had declined in April of last year to block the CCI’s inquiry into the petitions filed by WhatsApp LLC and Facebook Inc.—now known as Meta Platforms. Based on news reports, the CCI made the independent decision to investigate WhatsApp’s amended privacy policy in January of last year. The anti-trust watchdog had stated that WhatsApp’s anti-competitive sharing of user data with Facebook was the subject of its inquiry.

It also supported the opening of an investigation into Facebook in relation to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, claiming that the latter is the holding company for the messaging service and might potentially abuse the data supplied.

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