Justice Navin Chawla of the Delhi High Court defenestrated Facebook Inc and its subsidiary Whatsapp’s plea against an order issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to conduct an inquiry into the New Privacy Policy. The CCI has alleged Facebook Inc and Whatsapp of being unlawfully anti-competitive.
The court has said that it wasn’t able to detect merits in the petition and refused to extinguish the CCI probe.
Delhi High Court dismisses Facebook and WhatsApp's pleas challenging a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order for an investigation into the messaging app's new privacy policy. pic.twitter.com/fWOIRkjhfN
— ANI (@ANI) April 22, 2021
Well, the matter was taken ahead to the court by three concerned parties; Sr. Adv. Harish Salve for Whatsapp, Sr. Adv. Mukul Rohatgi for Facebook as well as additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi for the CCI. The matter was argued by the three at great length.
Salve, speaking against the CCI order, said, “The primary aim of the 2021 policy is to provide users more transparency and to inform users how business services work for providing optimal benefits. Whatsapp has a separate business service- providing for linking it with Facebook,” as quoted by Live Law.
Furthermore, defenestrating the privacy infringement concerns, Salve added, “Whatsapp cannot see users’ personal conversations with their friends or family as they are protected by end-to-end encryption and that the 2021 updates do not change this”.
In order to this, Facebook’s representative Sr Adv Rohatgi sought a stay on the proceedings on various grounds.
In addition to this, ASG Aman Lekhi for the CCI, also argued that the issue is not only limited to privacy concerns but also pertains to access to the data and therefore, the CCI is was acting well staying within its boundary.