On January 23, an Indian tribunal temporarily lifted a five-year data sharing ban between WhatsApp and its owner Meta Platforms, granting the U.S. tech giant relief from potential impacts on its advertising business. Meta had challenged the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) ban on data sharing for advertising purposes, citing concerns about the CCI's lack of "technical expertise."
India's National Company Law Appellate Tribunal suspended the data sharing prohibition pending further review of Meta's antitrust challenge, recognizing that the ban "may lead to a collapse" of WhatsApp's business model. India is a crucial market for Meta, boasting over 350 million Facebook users and 500 million WhatsApp users.
Meta warned that it might need to "roll back or pause" features, affecting functions like personalized ads for Indian businesses based on interactions with WhatsApp users. Facebook's India entity dedicated to ad sales reported revenue of $351 million in 2023-24, the highest in five years.
Meta responded to the ruling by expressing a willingness to evaluate next steps, while the CCI has the option to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court if desired. Additionally, in 2021, WhatsApp faced scrutiny in the European Union for policy changes. Meanwhile, in India, the CCI's ruling in November highlighted concerns about WhatsApp pushing users to accept policy changes under the threat of service denial.
Meta defended the changes as merely clarifications on optional business messaging features, emphasizing that they did not extend data sharing capabilities. Nevertheless, the CCI mandated in November that WhatsApp allows users to opt-in or opt-out of data sharing with Meta.