BREAKING| Supreme Court Dismisses Pleas Of WhatsApp-Meta Against CCI Probe Into Privacy Policy

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petitions filed by Whatsapp and its parent company Meta (Facebook) seeking to stay the investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) into their privacy policy.

A bench comprising Justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia rejected the petitions filed by WhatsApp and Meta challenging the order of the Delhi High Court division bench which refused to stay the CCI probe.

The bench observed in the order as follows :

"The CCI is an independent authority to consider any violation of the provision of the Competition Act 2002. When having prima facie opined that it is a case of violation of 2002 Act and thereafter when the proceedings are initiated by the CCI, it cannot be said that the initiation of the proceedings of the CCI are wholly without jurisdiction. The precedent of the Supreme Court has held that the proceedings before the CCI are required to completed be at the earliest. In view of the above, the CCI cannot be restrained from proceeding further with the enquiry/investigation for the alleged violation of the Competition Act. All the contentions available to the parties are kept open.Any observation made by the High Court be considered as tentative/prima facie".

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Meta, submitted that a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition concerning the validity of the privacy policy of WhatsApp and that the matter is posted for hearing in January 2023. He added that a new personal data protection bill is likely to be introduced in the Parliament in the winter session. In this background, the CCI should defer passing final orders in the matter, Sibal urged.

However, the bench asked how the Constitution Bench hearings can affect the exercise of independent statutory powers of the CCI.

"CCI is an independent statutory body. Their proceedings cannot be stopped", Justice Shah said.

"I am not saying the proceedings should be stopped. I am just saying don't pass the final orders", Sibal replied.

 "We don't know what will be the outcome of their investigation, you approach the CCI and make the request", Justice Shah stated.

At this juncture, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for Meta, submitted that there was a jurisdictional bar on the CCI.

"Let the investigation go on, let the enquiry go on. Then what final order is, we'll leave it to CCI", Justice Shah reiterated.

Additional Solicitor General of India N Venkatraman, appearing for the CCI, said that the authority is only examining the issue of abuse of dominance and not deciding any Constitutional question. So there is no overlap with the Supreme Court proceedings, he said.

"We are a market regulator. We are examining if there is abuse of dominance by their privacy policy. Individuals use WhatsApp, whether the policy is right is pending. Data is being shared by whatsapp, they then advertise on basis of that. Article 21 has nothing to do with this. The concentration of data with them results in abuse", the ASG said. He pointed out both the single bench and the division bench of the Delhi High Court refused to accept the plea of Meta.  

Click Here To Read/Download Order