A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was listening to appeals filed by the tech giants in opposition to the Nationwide Firm Legislation Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) instructions of December final 12 months.
The courtroom can be seized of a cross-enchantment filed by the CCI, assailing the NCLAT ruling to the extent that it allowed WhatsApp and Meta to proceed sharing customers’ knowledge for promoting functions.
“These purposes basically search a path for a keep of the impugned judgment of the NCLAT to the extent it approves the path issued by the CCI directing Meta to comply with the impugned instructions contained within the NCLAT order dated December 15, 2025, containing sure instructions issued to Meta,” the CJI stated.
Being attentive to the submissions made by senior counsel Kapil Sibal on behalf of WhatsApp that the appellants (the 2 tech giants) have determined to implement the tribunal’s instructions by March 16, the CJI dismissed the purposes looking for a keep.
He, nevertheless, clarified that the pleas are being dismissed, with out prejudice to the problems in the primary enchantment. The CJI additionally sought a compliance report from the businesses.
“In the meantime, the appellants’ affidavit concerning the privacy coverage could also be examined by the CCI and a response be positioned on document,” he stated.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms Inc.
The apex courtroom is listening to the appeals of the tech giants in opposition to a CCI order that imposed a penalty of ₹213.14 crore on them over WhatsApp’s privacy coverage.
On February 3, in a stinging rebuke, the courtroom advised each the companies that they can’t “play with the best to privacy of residents within the identify of information sharing”, and accused them of making a monopoly out there and committing theft of shoppers’ personal info.
Decrying WhatsApp’s privacy coverage, the courtroom referred to “silent prospects”, who’re unorganised, digitally dependent and unaware of the implications of information-sharing insurance policies, and stated, “We will not permit the rights of any citizen of this nation to be broken.” On November 4, 2025, the NCLAT put aside a piece of a CCI order that had banned the moment-messaging app from sharing knowledge with Meta Platforms for promoting functions for 5 years, however retained a ₹213-crore penalty on the social-media platform.
Later, the tribunal clarified that its order within the WhatsApp matter on privacy and consent safeguards additionally applies to person-knowledge assortment and sharing for non-WhatsApp functions, together with non-promoting and promoting.
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