India’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Meta units for advertising purposes for five years and also levied a fine of $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy.

India's competition watchdog directed WhatsApp to refrain from sharing user data for advertising purposes with other applications owned by Meta for a period of five years and fined the U.S. tech giant $25.

Shouldn't have abused messaging dominance, Zuck India's Competition Commission has slapped Meta with a five-year ban on using info collected from WhatsApp to help with advertising on its other platforms.

Rs 213-crore penalty for unfair practices in WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy update. The CCI has restricted WhatsApp from sharing user data across Meta platforms, enforcing behavioral remedies and providing data usage transparency for five years,

The Commission also issued cease-and-desist directions, asking Meta and WhatsApp to implement certain behavioural remedies within a defined timeline.

Tech giants, including Apple and Meta, face new regulatory challenges with India’s proposed EU-like antitrust law. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Meta’s statement comes a day after CCI imposed a ₹213.14 crore fine on Meta for "using its strong position" to change WhatsApp's 2021 Privacy Policy.

The watchdog concluded that the 2021 policy update by WhatsApp on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis constitutes an imposition of unfair conditions.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a fine worth approximately ₹213.1 crore ($25.4 million) on WhatsApp over antitrust breaches related to the privacy policy case running since 2021.