The encyclopedia · Legal & Compliance · Legal decision · 2021–2025
WhatsApp's take-it-or-leave-it data policy — ₹213.14 crore CCI fine
India's competition regulator fined WhatsApp — the 2021 privacy policy forced users to accept data sharing with other Meta companies to keep the app.
Meta · WhatsApp · 2024-11-18
What happened
On 18 November 2024 India's Competition Commission fined WhatsApp ₹213.14 crore — roughly US$25 million — for abusing its dominant position in messaging through the privacy policy it pushed out in 2021.
The CCI found the policy was a take-it-or-leave-it arrangement: to keep using WhatsApp, users had to accept their data being shared with the other Meta companies, with no real choice. That forced consent amounted to abuse of dominance under India's Competition Act.
The CCI also ordered WhatsApp not to share user data collected on its platform with other Meta companies for advertising purposes for five years.
On 4 November 2025 India's NCLAT upheld the ₹213.14 crore penalty and the finding of abuse, but set aside the five-year ban on sharing data for advertising and a related leveraging finding. Meta had earlier been directed to deposit half the penalty while the appeal was pending.
Why it happened
- A policy that must be accepted to keep using the app turned a data-sharing change into a hostage situation, so the consent the law needed was not really consent.
- Tying the world's most popular messaging app to data flowing into the rest of the Meta family priced the choice out of the product entirely.
- Defending a forced-acceptance policy as a service update made the regulator measure the coercion, not just the data processing.
The lesson
Consent that is forced is not consent. When a dominant app makes accepting data-sharing a condition of use, the regulator prices the coercion — changing the frame does not change the terms.
Aftermath
WhatsApp and Meta challenged the order, and in January 2025 NCLAT stayed the five-year data-sharing ban and directed Meta to deposit half the penalty. On 4 November 2025 NCLAT upheld the ₹213.14 crore fine and the abuse finding but set aside the advertising data-sharing ban and the leveraging finding. WhatsApp had also been fined by Ireland's watchdog over transparency in a separate, earlier case, showing the same data-sharing model drawing scrutiny in different jurisdictions.
Sources
- NCLAT upholds CCI's ₹213.14 cr penalty on WhatsApp for abuse of market position — Hindustan Times
- NCLAT partially upholds CCI order on ₹213 crore penalty, allows Meta to share WhatsApp data — Livemint
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