An Indian court on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have prevented WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, handing a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its biggest market since users.
The decision by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust regulator, which had accused WhatsApp of abusing market dominance through its privacy policy in 2021.
India is the largest market for Meta and WhatsApp. More than 700 million users in India use WhatsApp every month, according to insights from Sensor Tower.
In November, the Competition Commission of India ruled that WhatsApp’s take-it-or-leave-it privacy update constituted an abuse of Meta’s dominant position by forcing users to agree to expanded data collection without an opt-out option.
At the time, the watchdog found that Meta was dominant in two key markets in India: so-called over-the-top messaging apps via smartphones and online display advertising.
While the ban remained in place on Thursday, the court ordered Meta to deposit about $12.35 million – half of a larger penalty – within two weeks.
The court, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, expressed concern that the five-year ban could threaten the business model of WhatsApp, which offers free messaging to users.
Meta’s lawyers argued that India’s upcoming digital privacy law, expected to come into force later this year, should regulate such issues rather than competition rules.
“We welcome NCLAT’s decision to grant a partial stay to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order. While we will evaluate next steps, our focus remains on finding a way forward that supports the millions of businesses that depend on our platform for growth and innovation, as well as delivering the high-quality experiences people expect from WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said in a. statement.
The dispute began when WhatsApp asked users to agree to expanded data sharing with Meta’s platforms or risk losing access to the messaging service. While European users can opt into such a split, Indian users cannot — a distinction that regulators found problematic.
