Antitrust fine in India: Meta intends to appeal

The US company Meta declared on Tuesday that it did not agree with a penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and announced that it would legally challenge the order. This was reported by the news agency Reuters on Tuesday.

On Monday, India's competition watchdog restricted data sharing between WhatsApp and other meta applications due to antitrust violations and imposed a fine of 213.14 million rupees (around 24 million euros). They criticized the terms of use and privacy policy updated in 2021, which required WhatsApp users to agree to extended data sharing terms with other meta companies to continue using the messenger app. Accordingly, WhatsApp has exploited its dominant market position to enforce the directive. The CCI initiated a corresponding investigation in March of this year.

According to the Reuters report, a Meta spokesperson explained on Tuesday that the 2021 update does not change the privacy of users' personal messages. "We have also ensured that no one will have their accounts deleted or lose the functionality of the WhatsApp service as a result of this update," the spokesperson said. An appeal will be lodged.

Trouble with data protection elsewhere too

The case is causing interest beyond India. The authorities – are not only concerned in India – that WhatsApp is gaining undue control over user data and that consumer choice is being restricted. In August 2021, the Irish data protection authority, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), imposed the then record fine of 225 million euros on WhatsApp based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPC accused the messenger of a lack of transparency when sharing data with Facebook. Whatsapp appealed against the decision, but failed in its lawsuit against the million-euro fine before the EU court.

In addition to the multi-million fine, the Indian competition authority has now ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with meta-companies for advertising purposes for five years. After this period, users must be provided the opportunity to opt out of the sharing of data that is not related to the service. WhatsApp must also explain which data is shared with meta-companies in detail, how it is used and what purposes it is used for.

(akn)