India tribunal lifts WhatsApp data-sharing ban, upholds Meta fine

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(Reuters) -An Indian appeals tribunal on Tuesday set aside an antitrust watchdog’s five-year ban on Meta-owned WhatsApp sharing user data with other Meta entities for advertising, but upheld a fine, marking a partial win for the U.S. tech major.

WhatsApp had challenged the Competition Commission of India’s November 2024 ban on data sharing between WhatsApp and other Meta entities, warning it may have to roll back some features.

Meta also criticised the CCI for not having the “technical expertise” to understand the ramifications of its order.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) lifted the data-sharing ban, noting that “the rationale for the…ban was missing altogether”.

However, it upheld the $25.4 million fine that the CCI had imposed, saying Meta abused its dominance by imposing unfair conditions.

The case began in 2021 amid criticism of WhatsApp’s privacy policy changes, with the CCI’s probe finding that the policy pushed users to accept the change or risk losing access to the service.

“While we evaluate the written order, we continue to reiterate that WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update did not change the privacy of people’s personal messages which remain end-to-end encrypted,” a spokersperson for Meta told Reuters in an emailed response.

India is Meta’s biggest market with the highest number of users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp worldwide.

(Reporting by Komal Salecha, Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Arpan Chaturvedi in Delhi; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Devika Syamnath)