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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 213.14 crore on social media company Meta. This fine was imposed for adopting unfair business practices in relation to WhatsApp privacy updates in 2021. Apart from this, CCI has directed Meta to stop and refrain from anti-competitive behavior.
An order said that the competition regulator on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta for abusing its dominance. Passing an order against abuse of dominance, CCI said that this fine is related to how WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy was implemented, how user data was collected and shared with other companies of Meta.
On the other hand, CCI has also directed WhatsApp not to share user data collected on its platform with other Meta products or companies for advertising purposes for a period of five years. This order of CCI has given a big blow to Meta or WhatsApp. WhatsApp alone has more than 500 million monthly active users in the country. Let us also tell you what kind of information has been given by CCI.
What was found in the CCI investigation
CCI began investigating WhatsApp’s revised privacy policy in March 2021, which enabled expanded scope of data collection as well as mandatory data sharing with Facebook (now Meta) and its companies. Earlier, since 2016, users had the option to decide whether to share their data with the company or not. The policy, which was to be applicable to users from January 2021, was to come into effect from February 2021. Users were required to accept the new terms to keep WhatsApp running.
After that, there was a lot of criticism about it and Meta canceled this rollout. WhatsApp also later issued a clarification stating that the policy update would not affect the privacy of users’ personal messages with their friends or family and stressed that the changes were related to optional business features offered by the application.
Such allegations against Meta
After an investigation of more than three and a half years, the CCI found that WhatsApp’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ policy update was not fair. It forced all users to accept expanded data collection terms and share data within the Meta group without any opt-out. The CCI said that this update brought by Meta forces users to implement it, reduces their autonomy, and abuses Meta’s dominant position. According to the Commission, Meta (through WhatsApp) has violated Section 4(2)(a)(i).
The Commission said that Meta has taken advantage of its dominant position in the over-the-top (OTT) messaging app on smartphones to protect its position in the online display advertising market. In addition, Meta’s sharing of WhatsApp users’ data between companies for purposes other than providing the WhatsApp service has made it difficult for other companies to enter the market and has made it very difficult for other existing companies to compete with Meta.
