CCI Fines More than Rs 230 Crore Against Meta for Sharing Data of WhatsApp

Difficulties are increasing in the country for Meta, one of the big social media companies. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on this company for misusing its dominant position. This matter is related to the privacy policy of instant messaging platform WhatsApp implemented about three years ago. WhatsApp is owned by Meta.

Under this policy, data sharing between WhatsApp and other Meta firms like Facebook was made mandatory. Due to this, questions were raised regarding the privacy of users and fairness in the market. In the CCI decision, this has been termed as an unfair condition, which is a violation of the Competition Act. According to Bloomberg report, a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore has been imposed on Meta for this. CCI has also directed Meta and WhatsApp to take some improvement measures within a certain period. These instructions state that there will be no sharing of data for advertisements.

There has been a ban on sharing users’ data with Meta firms for the purpose of advertisements on WhatsApp. Additionally, WhatsApp will have to clearly state what data is shared with Meta’s firms and link each type of data to specific purposes. CCI has also found this company guilty of creating obstacles for competitors in the online display advertising market. The company uses the data of WhatsApp users for this. Meta says that it is considering appealing against this decision of CCI.

Recently, CCI had accused Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone makers of violating competition laws by tying up with e-commerce companies Amazon and Flipkart. These smartphone makers had launched their products exclusively on the websites of e-commerce companies in the country, which is a violation of competition laws. The investigation conducted by CCI had found that Amazon and Flipkart had caused loss to other companies by giving priority to select retailers and offering huge discounts.