NCLAT reserves verdict on Meta, WhatsApp appeal against CCI penalty over 2021 privacy policy

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The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has concluded hearings on the appeals filed by Meta Platforms and WhatsApp, contesting the penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) over the 2021 WhatsApp privacy policy update, and has now reserved its order.

A two-member bench of the NCLAT, comprising Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Member (Technical) Arun Baroka, directed the parties to submit written submissions by October 6, 2025. “All the parties to file concise notes of submissions of not more than ten pages by October 6, 2025,” the bench said while reserving its judgment on Thursday.

The case stems from a CCI order dated November 18, 2024, in which the regulator levied a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta, ruling that the 2021 update to WhatsApp’s privacy policy amounted to unfair business practices. In the same 156-page order, CCI also directed Meta to “cease and desist from anti-competitive practices” and implement a series of behavioural remedies.

According to the regulator’s directions, WhatsApp has been barred from sharing user data collected on its platform with other Meta companies or Meta products for advertising purposes for a period of five years. Further, the order mandates that sharing user data “for purposes other than providing WhatsApp services shall not be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp services in India.”

Earlier, in January this year, NCLAT had passed an interim order staying the five-year ban on data-sharing practices between WhatsApp and Meta, offering temporary relief to the tech giant.

During the final round of hearings, Senior Counsel Arun Kathpalia and Senior Advocate Amit Sibal concluded their rejoinders against the arguments made by CCI’s Senior Advocate Balbir Singh. Kathpalia argued that the regulator’s strategy “has been to repeat the same inaccuracies.” He pointed out that CCI wrongly claimed that the 2021 Privacy Policy overrode the opt-out option given to users in 2016. He also took issue with the regulator’s justification for the five-year ban, noting, “no such reasoning is present in the order.”

On behalf of Meta, Amit Sibal argued that several of his points during the initial hearing had not been addressed by CCI, and he presented a list of such arguments before the tribunal. He further submitted that CCI’s position that it does not need to establish Meta’s dominance in the market for online display advertisements in order to demonstrate denial of market access was “legally untenable” and rested on “an incorrect reading of Supreme Court judgements.” According to him, “CCI continues to ignore that limited data is shared by WhatsApp with Meta.”

Countering these claims, CCI’s counsel Balbir Singh maintained that WhatsApp had “abused its position by imposing the 2021 privacy policy on a take it or leave it basis.” Singh also dismissed the contention that CCI lacked jurisdiction, arguing that the matter went beyond data protection and into the realm of public interest, where competition law and data protection law “serve complementary roles.”

In November last year, CCI not only penalised Meta but also imposed restrictions requiring WhatsApp to stop data-sharing with Meta companies for advertising, insisting that the remedy was necessary to revive competition in the sector.

With inputs from PTI