NCLAT dismisses NGO’s plea, upholds anti-trust regulator’s decision on WhatsApp

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has dismissed an appeal by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) against a decision by India’s anti-trust regulator that instant messaging platform WhatsApp had not been abusing its dominant position in the country.

In a judgment dated August 2, the NCLAT said there was no reason for it to doubt the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) 2017 order.

Fight for Transparency Society, the NGO had complained to the CCI in 2017 saying that the Meta-owned platform’s privacy policy update of 2016 would force users to share their data with social media platform Facebook and its other group companies.