New Delhi, Nov 4 : The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has given partial relief to Meta Platforms and its messaging app WhatsApp in the ongoing competition case related to WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy update.

The tribunal upheld the Rs 213.14 crore penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) but cancelled two major parts of the earlier order -- the finding that WhatsApp held a dominant position and the five-year ban on sharing user data for advertising purposes.

The case dates back to November 2024, when the CCI ruled that WhatsApp had misused its dominant position in India's OTT messaging market.

The regulator said WhatsApp forced users to accept its 2021 update, which made data sharing with other Meta companies mandatory, removing the earlier option to opt out.

The CCI said this policy weakened competition in the online advertising market.

Along with the fine, the CCI had ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with Meta's other companies for advertising for five years.

However, the NCLAT bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member Arun Baroka struck down these parts of the order.

The tribunal said the CCI had gone beyond its authority under Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act and removed the restriction mentioned in paragraph 247.1 of the decision.

The NCLAT agreed with Meta's argument that banning data sharing could affect WhatsApp's free-to-use model and pointed out that matters related to data protection fall outside the CCI's powers.

A Meta spokesperson welcomed the decision, saying, 'We welcome the NCLAT's decision. While we await the written order, we continue to reiterate that WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy update did not change the privacy of people's personal messages which remain end-to-end encrypted.'

The spokesperson added that WhatsApp's business features, such as bill payments, ticket booking, and shopping, help make people's lives easier and support India's digital economy.

/IANS