The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has issued an order – as well as a fine of $25.4 million – to the tech giant Meta to restrict it from sharing data between its platforms for five years.
Meta is to appeal a data restriction order in India.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has issued an order to the tech giant – which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – to restrict it from sharing data between its platforms for advertising reasons for five years.
A Meta spokesperson said: “As a reminder, the 2021 update did not change the privacy of people’s personal messages and was offered as a choice for users at the time. We also ensured no one would have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of the WhatsApp service because of this update.”
It comes as the texting service’s February 2021 update – which saw a change in the platform’s privacy policies – “expanded scope of data collection, as well as mandatory data sharing with Meta companies” to help out advertising on its other services.
It also fined Meta $25.4 million for violating antitrust rules from the privacy policy.
This comes as the country is thinking about bringing in an EU-styled antitrust/competition law – which, according to Concurrences.com, covers “abuse of dominance and anticompetitive agreements but not merger control”.
To strengthen India’s current antitrust framework, the government is looking at a recommendation for a Digital Competition Bill.
If approved, the Global Competition Review says it looks to provide a “more nuanced enforcement mechanism”.
Meta set to appeal India advertising restriction order
