NCLAT Allows Meta, WhatsApp To Redact Confidential Data From Judgment Upholding ₹213 Crore CCI Penalty

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) at Delhi on Tuesday allowed applications filed by Meta Platforms and WhatsApp LLC seeking redaction of confidential commercial information from the tribunal's November 4 judgment that upheld the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) Rs 213 crore penalty for abuse of dominance in the OTT messaging market.

A bench comprising Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member Arun Baroka directed that specific portions of the judgment identified as confidential and highlighted in blue in the parties' submissions be removed from the publicly available version and from certified copies, and that no inspection of the redacted portions will be permitted.

Counsel for WhatsApp sought redaction of confidential material contained on pages 194 to 196 of the judgment. Recording submissions from counsel for the CCI, the bench noted that the commission had no objection to the request and ordered that the designated material be removed from the judgment uploaded on the tribunal's website and excluded from all certified copies.

Meta similarly sought redaction of confidential content on pages 200 to 202, clarifying that only specific segments marked in blue within identified paragraphs required removal. The CCI again expressed no objection. The bench then directed that only the portions highlighted in blue be redacted from the judgment, certified copies and inspection.

The November 4 judgment had upheld the CCI's findings that WhatsApp and Meta abused their dominant position in the market for OTT messaging services in India by imposing unfair data-sharing terms and forcing users to accept the updated 2021 privacy policy enabling broader transfer of WhatsApp user data to Meta platforms.

The tribunal held that the overlap between privacy and competition considerations does not curtail the CCI's jurisdiction to investigate anti-competitive conduct, observing that privacy is a non-price factor and that excessive data collection may amount to degradation of service quality.

However, it set aside the CCI's five-year ban on sharing WhatsApp user data for advertising purposes, holding that the restriction lacked justification, and also reversed the commission's finding of leveraging under Section 4(2)(e) on the ground that Meta and WhatsApp are separate legal entities. The appeals were partly allowed, but the Rs. 213 crore penalty and findings on unfair conditions and restriction of market access under Sections 4(2)(a)(i) and 4(2)(c) were left undisturbed.

Case Title: WhatsApp LLC v CCI

Case Number: IA No 6913 of 2025 in Competition Appeal No. 1 of 2025