NCLAT to Hear WhatsApp Data Sharing Case in August

New Delhi, May 15 (PTI) The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal will commence its final hearing on WhatsApp plea over sharing data with parent Meta from August 12, 2025.

On March 17, the NCLAT adjourned the matter after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for WhatsApp had submitted that the Government of India has issued a draft rule for Extension of time of Public Consultation on the Draft 'Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025'.

He had suggested that the hearing of the appeal may await the rules which is to came in the mid of 2025, following which the matter was adjourned to May 13.

However, when the proceedings started on Tuesday, Sibal said a statement given by the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology in April 2025 stated that the Rules are almost finalised for Digital Personal Data Protection and a notification will be issued soon.

On this, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for WhatsApp LLC, submitted that the petition may be taken in the first week of August 2025 for hearing.

Consenting to it, Samar Bansal counsel appearing for CCI submitted that the appeal may be heard in one go, including issues pertaining to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Rules.

Agreeing to this, a two-member NCLAT bench said, "List these Appeals on 12th and 13th August, 2025 at 02:00 PM. Hearing in the appeal shall commence on 12th August and continue on 13th August."

Meta had challenged the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) directive issued in November 2024 that imposed a ban on data sharing between WhatsApp and other Meta entities for advertising purposes, warning it may have to roll back some features. It had also slapped a Rs 213.14 crore penalty on Meta for abuse of its "dominant position".

In this matter, the appellate tribunal NCLAT had on January 23 stayed a five-year ban imposed by competition watchdog CCI on data-sharing practices between WhatsApp and its parent Meta for advertising purposes.

The NCLAT also stayed the Rs 213.14-crore penalty, subject to deposit of 50 per cent of the penalty amount (after taking into consideration 25 per cent already deposited), within two weeks.

The CCI had concluded that WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy update unfairly compels users to agree to a wide collection of data and its sharing within the Meta group.

In November, the CCI imposed the penalty on Meta for unfair business ways with respect to the WhatsApp privacy policy update done in 2021.

Meta Platforms and WhatsApp had challenged this order before the NCLAT, which is an appellate authority over the orders passed by the CCI.