Eye on new rules for personal data, NCLAT defers Meta's CCI case

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday decided to wait and see if the central government notifies the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules before proceeding with the appeals filed by Meta and WhatsApp against a 2024 order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that imposed ₹213.14 crore penalty on Meta for abuse of dominance.

- Ayesha Arvind

BENGALURU:

Along with the penalty, CCI had prohibited WhatsApp from sharing user data with Meta for a period of five years. Meta and WhatsApp challenged this order before NCLAT, which in January 2025 granted a partial stay on both the financial penalty and the restriction on data sharing.

A tribunal bench, led by NCLAT chairperson justice Ashok Bhushan, deferred the hearing after Meta submitted that the Centre was likely to notify the rules by the middle of the year, potentially impacting the case. The bench, also comprising technical member Arun Baroka, observed that the outcome of the DPDP Rules could have a bearing on the case and deemed it appropriate to delay proceedings to avoid any "overlap" with the forthcoming regulations.