CCI Slaps Meta With ₹213 Crore Antitrust Fine Over WhatsApp's Privacy Policy

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a fine worth approximately ₹213.1 crore ($25.4 million) on Meta over antitrust breaches related to the WhatsApp privacy policy case running since 2021. The Indian antitrust watchdog said WhatsApp's parent company Meta coerced users in India to accept the new terms and conditions to use the chat service. The controversial part of WhatsApp's new terms and conditions involves user consent to the sharing of their data “across all the information categories with other Facebook Companies," as mentioned in CCI's order released in 2021.“This relates to how WhatsApp's 2021 Privacy Policy was implemented and how user data was collected and shared with other Meta companies,” said CCI in a press release.According to the order, Meta abused WhatsApp's market position to propogate the new privacy policy that "makes it mandatory for the users to accept the terms and conditions in order to retain their WhatsApp account information and provides as to how it will share personalised user information with Facebook Inc." It found WhatsApp in violation of India's competition laws, saying that “the network effects working in favour of WhatsApp reinforces its position of strength and limit its substitutability with other functionally similar apps/platforms."In a blow to WhatsApp in its biggest market, the CCI has also issued cease-and-desist orders to Meta and asked it “to implement certain behavioural remedies within a defined timeline.” It added that “the 2021 policy update by WhatsApp on a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ basis constitutes an imposition of unfair condition under the Act, as it compels all users to accept expanded data collection terms and sharing of data within Meta Group without any opt out.”WhatsApp's 2021 Privacy PolicyIn 2021, Meta restructured its platform to make way for new privacy policies, stating that it would share user data across its online properties and companies. That meant WhatsApp – the flagbearer of end-to-end encryption messaging – may share data of its users with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Since the privacy policy required user consent, WhatsApp started showing pop-ups outlining the changes in the terms and conditions with a button for users to accept or reject them. However, users rejecting the new privacy policy found restrictions in the app, causing a massive uproar, especially when rival platforms such as Telegram and Signal maintained their privacy-centric stance on data sharing.

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CCI Slaps Meta With ₹213 Crore Antitrust Fine Over WhatsApp's Privacy Policy

The controversial part of WhatsApp's new terms and conditions involves user consent to the sharing of their data with Facebook Companies.

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