NEW DELHI: In a significant development, WhatsApp on Monday told the Supreme Court that it will comply with -- by March 16 -- the directions issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in connection with the case of user consent for data sharing with its parent, Meta, under the controversial 2021 privacy policy update.
"The company (By March 16) will adhere to the CCI’s directions as modified by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in its December 2025 ruling," Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp, informed the three-judge Bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.
Sibal submitted to the apex court that the appellate tribunal had directed Meta to implement the regulator’s safeguards within three months. "We will comply with by March 16, the directions issued by the CCI in this regard," he stated.
Sibal further said that the company has filed an affidavit stating that it had not infringed on user privacy by sharing data for advertising purposes, as alleged by the competition watchdog, CCI.
During the hearing, the apex court recorded the submissions and directed WhatsApp to file a formal compliance affidavit, and fixed the matter for further heating to April.
The SC was hearing the batch of pleas -- filed by WhatsApp and Meta, along with a separate appeal of the CCI challenging one of the NCLAT findings -- arising from the Competition Commission of India’s order imposing a Rs 213 crore penalty on Meta for WhatsApp’s 2021 “take it or leave it” privacy policy.
In a hearing on February 3, the top court had expressed serious concern over the way the social media platforms --WhatsApp and Meta -- shared the data of private individuals in the name of "data sharing", and came down heavily on these platforms and noted, "You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country.”
"You (WhatsApp and Meta) have to follow the rules of the country. We will not allow to share a single piece of information. You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country. You might have taken the data of millions of persons. This is a decent way of committing theft of private information. We will not allow you to use it," observed a bench of the top court earlier.
The Bench made these observations while hearing the batch of appeals filed by WhatsApp and Meta, as well as a separate appeal by the CCI challenging one of the NCLAT findings.
