Meta Faces Supreme Court Over WhatsApp Privacy Policy

- The core of the dispute is the 2021 privacy policy update, which made data sharing with Meta and its subsidiaries mandatory for users in India to continue using the service, removing the opt-out choice that was available in the 2016 policy. - The Competition Commission of India (CCI) initiated its investigation *suo moto* (on its own accord) in March 2021, viewing the "take-it-or-leave-it" nature of the policy as an abuse of WhatsApp's dominant position in the Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging market. - Meta and WhatsApp have consistently challenged the CCI's jurisdiction, arguing that data privacy issues fall under specialized laws like the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, not competition law. - The CCI's investigation defined two key markets of concern: the market for OTT messaging apps and the market for online display advertising in India, concluding Meta holds a dominant position in both. - In November 2024, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld the CCI's ₹213 crore penalty on Meta but set aside a five-year ban on sharing user data for advertising purposes, a point which the CCI is now cross-appealing in the Supreme Court. - During recent hearings, Supreme Court justices have made strong oral observations, questioning the meaningfulness of user consent on a monopolistic platform and comparing the non-consensual sharing of data to "a decent way of committing theft". - The Supreme Court has also directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to be a party to the proceedings, indicating the case's broad implications for data privacy and regulation in India. - A key difference highlighted in legal challenges is that users in Europe were offered an option to opt-out of the data sharing policy due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a choice not extended to Indian users.