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Informist, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – WhatsApp LLC. Monday told the Supreme Court that it will implement the Competition Commission of India's order, upheld by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Dec. 15, asking the company to give users a choice for sharing data with Meta Platforms Inc. or other Meta companies for all non-WhatsApp purposes--non-advertising as well as advertising. WhatsApp withdrew its application from the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the appellate tribunal's order and said it will comply with the same by Mar. 16. The top court asked WhatsApp to file a compliance report on the Dec. 15 order. 

 

Further, the top court said that the Competition Commission of India should examine WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy and give a response on the same. It asked WhatsApp and Meta Platforms to file a reply on competition watchdog's application seeking a stay on the appellate tribunal's order that had allowed WhatsApp to share user data collected on its platform with Meta Platforms Inc. or other Meta companies for advertising purposes, for a period of five years. It will hear the case next on Mar. 16.

 

Meta Platforms and WhatsApp have moved the Supreme Court to challenge the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's 2025 order upholding the Competition Commission of India's INR 2.1-billion penalty against them for abusing their dominant position in a case concerning WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy. The petitioners also challenged the appellate tribunal's order directing WhatsApp to provide users with the option to share data with Meta Platforms Inc. or other Meta companies for all non-WhatsApp purposes--non-advertising as well as advertising. In addition, the Competition Commission of India has filed a cross appeal against the appellate tribunal's order on data sharing.

 

The Supreme Court on Feb. 3 said that in the name of data sharing, WhatsApp and Meta Platforms Inc. couldn't play with the right to privacy of India's users and what they were doing was just a decent way of committing theft of private information of users. "We will not allow you to share even a single information, you cannot play with the rights of this country, let a clear message go on your WhatsApp," said a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. 

 

The case dates back to January 2021, when WhatsApp updated its terms of service and privacy policies. Under the new privacy policy, to continue using WhatsApp, users were required to accept the new terms, including an expanded scope of data collection and mandatory data sharing with Meta companies.

 

Under the 2016 privacy policy, WhatsApp users were given the option to decide whether to share their data with Meta. However, with the 2021 policy update, WhatsApp made data sharing with Meta mandatory for all users, removing the prior opt-out option. This meant that to continue using the platform, users had to accept the new terms, which included data sharing with Meta.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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