Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has a major relief. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has suspended the ban on data sharing on American company META, which owe WhatsApp. META had argued that the banning of WhatsApp data would harm its advertising business.

The stocking of data between WhatsApp and other firms of Meta was banned by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). META has also condemned the CCI due to not having ‘technical specialty’ in understanding the effects of this order. NCLAT on Thursday ordered the suspension of this ban on data sharing. The hearing on the challenge given by META to the CCI’s decision will continue. India is the largest market for this company operating social media platform Facebook. This company has more than 35 crore users in the country. Apart from this, more than 50 crore people use WhatsApp.

A META spokesperson said the company welcomes the decision and will be assessed the next steps regarding it. The CCI did not answer the request sent to comment on the decision. Earlier, META had said that the CCI’s order is cutting the rights of users as well as its rights. On this, CCI had said that it has analyzed its effect before ordering and this order is not going against the case going on in the Supreme Court. The CCI had said that the Supreme Court is listening to the matter from the perspective of Article 21 of the Constitution, while the CCI has investigated it in terms of competition.

In Europe, Meta has given users the option to accept or not to accept the conditions related to privacy policy. However, users in India do not have the option to withdraw it after giving consent for this policy. In November last year, the CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore to misuse its dominated situation on Meta. The case is related to the privacy policy implemented about four years ago of WhatsApp.

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