Will comply with NCLAT’s directions, WhatsApp to SC
Global tech giants Meta Platforms Inc and WhatsApp told the Supreme Court on Monday that they will comply with the NCLAT’s directions for extending the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) privacy and consent guidelines to advertising-related data. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was hearing appeals filed by the tech giants against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) directions of December last year.
The court is also seized of a cross-appeal filed by the CCI, assailing the NCLAT ruling to the extent that it allowed WhatsApp and Meta to continue sharing users’ data for advertising purposes. “These applications essentially seek a direction for a stay of the impugned judgment of the NCLAT to the extent it approves the direction issued by the CCI directing Meta to comply with the impugned directions contained in the NCLAT order dated December 15, 2025, containing certain directions issued to Meta,” the CJI said.
Taking note of the submissions made by senior counsel Kapil Sibal on behalf of WhatsApp that the appellants (the two tech giants) have decided to implement the tribunal’s directions by March 16, the CJI dismissed the applications seeking a stay. He, however, clarified that the pleas are being dismissed, without prejudice to the issues in the main appeal. The CJI also sought a compliance report from the companies. “Meanwhile, the appellants’ affidavit regarding the privacy policy may be examined by the CCI and a response be placed on record,” he said.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms Inc. The apex court is hearing the appeals of the tech giants against a CCI order that imposed a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore on them over WhatsApp’s privacy policy. Mukul Rohatgi also represented WhatsApp.
On February 3, in a stinging rebuke, the court told both the firms that they cannot “play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing”, and accused them of creating a monopoly in the market and committing theft of customers’ private information.
Decrying WhatsApp’s privacy policy, the court referred to “silent customers”, who are unorganised, digitally dependent and unaware of the implications of data-sharing policies, and said, “We will not allow the rights of any citizen of this country to be damaged.”
On November 4, 2025, the NCLAT set aside a section of a CCI order that had banned the instant-messaging app from sharing data with Meta Platforms for advertising purposes for five years, but retained a Rs 213-crore penalty on the social-media platform.
Later, the tribunal clarified that its order in the WhatsApp matter on privacy and consent safeguards also applies to user-data collection and sharing for non-WhatsApp purposes, including non-advertising and advertising.
