Jass Kaur Bindra
WhatsApp claimed in the Delhi High Court that the Competition Commission of India is overreaching its power.
Already a claim of WhatsApp’s new privacy policy is going in the Supreme Court.
Therefore, WhatsApp raised the contention that the Competition Commission of India does not require a specific investigation, encroaching into the rights of WhatsApp.
Competition Commission contended before the bench in Delhi High Court that they are dealing with WhatsApp new privacy policy in regards to its competition in the market instead of the alleged violation of individual’s privacy.
The Competition Commission stated, “Only after Investigation it can be known, whether the data collection by WhatsApp and sharing it with Facebook would amount to anti-competitive practice or abuse of dominant position or not.”
Justice Navin Chawla is dealing with the case of WhatsApp and the Competition Commission of India.
The order of the Delhi High Court is reserved in the matter relating to the investigation which was conducted by the Competition Commission of India into WhatsApp 2021 privacy policy.
This petition was filed by Facebook which is the owner of WhatsApp in the High Court of Delhi.
WhatsApp is being represented by highly experienced advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi before the court of law.
The Competition Commission of India clearly stated in its order that, “India’s competition regulator on March 24 had ordered a probe after it found that the messaging platform had violated the provisions of the competition act on abuse of dominance in grab of policy update. The data sharing policy seemed exploitative and could have exclusionary effects which have the potential to undermine the competitive process and create the barriers to market entry.”
Aman Lekhi who is representing the Competition Commission of India submitted before the honourable Court that, “The new privacy policy of WhatsApp would lead to excessive data collection and stocking of consumers for targeted advertising, to bring in more users and is therefore an alleged abuse of dominant position.”
Lekhi stated, “There is no question of jurisdictional error, WhatsApp and Facebook plea challenging the Competition Commission of India’s decision were incompetent and misconceived”.
The matter has been heard by the Delhi High Court and the judgement is reserved.