The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) vide its order dated August 18, 2020 has held that there is no alleged contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 (“Act”) against Whatsapp or Facebook. The CCI after giving a detailed order held that there is no prima facie case of contravention and the information is directed to be closed under Section 26(2) of the Act.
Facts:
An information under Section 19(1)(a) of the Act was filed by Ms. Harshita Chawla, (“Informant”), a practicing advocate against WhatsApp Inc. (“WhatsApp”) and Facebook Inc. (“Facebook”) alleging contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act.
The Informant alleged the following:
Pursuant to the information filed, the CCI directed both WhatsApp and Facebook to file reply to the information. After analysing the allegations made in the information and replies submitted by both the opposite parties, the CCI observed as under:
Conclusion:
After making the above observations, the CCI held as under:
This update has been contributed by R. Sudhinder (Senior Partner) and Prerana Amitabh (Associate).
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