The Division bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed the petitions of WhatsApp and Facebook challenging a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order calling for an investigation into the messaging apps new privacy policy.
The bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad on Thursday while dismissing both appeals moved by WhatsApp and Facebook refused to further extend the stay granted on notices issued to messaging apps by CCI. The bench said that the appeals were devoid of merits. The bench had kept the order reserved on 25 July, 2022, after the completion of
the submissions by all sides.
Appearing for Facebook Senior Advocate Mukul Rohtagi submitted that because Facebook is the formal owner of Whatsapp and the platform is said to share its data with Facebook (parent company) doesn’t mean that it is a necessary party to investigate. While opposed to the CCI probe against Facebook, Rohtagi further argued that there is no prima facie material available with the CCI to proceed with investigating it while conducting the investigation of WhatsApp’s new privacy policy.