The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday told the Delhi High Court that WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy of 2021 has not been withdrawn and its probe concerning the policy should be allowed to proceed.

The CCI also said the scope of its inquiry has no overlap with the issue of an alleged infringement of user privacy pending before the Supreme Court.

The submissions were made by the CCI before a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on appeals by WhatsApp LLCand Facebook Inc against a single-judge order dismissing their challenge to the probe ordered by the CCI into the instant messaging platforms updated privacy policy.

The bench, also comprising Justice SubramoniumPrasad, reserved an order on the appeals after hearing the parties concerned.

In January last year, the CCI on its own had decided to look into WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy based on news reports.

WhatsApp and Facebook had challenged before the single judge CCI’s March 2021order directing a probe against them, saying that the issue concerning its new policy was already pending consideration before the high court and the Supreme Court.

The single judge on April 22 last year had, however, refused to interdict the investigation directed by the CCI.

Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) N Venkataraman, appearing for the CCI, argued that the probe into the privacy policy — which is “still in place and functional” — should not be deferred any further to await the decision of the Supreme Court, especially in the absence of any stay on the single judge order.

He asserted that the messaging platform was still issuing a “pop up” seeking the consent of users who are yet to accept the updated policy.

“Judicial process cannot be used to thwart investigation…. (Pendency of privacy issue before Supreme Court) can not automatically obviate competition law concerns. There is no overlap in facts. We should be allowed to investigate. There is no overlap in law,” he argued.

The ASG said the infraction on the competition law front may still be happening as there are users who have optedfor the policy update and “fornon-withdrawal period”, the policy has to be “examined.”

Points Made

■ WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy of 2021 has not been withdrawn. So probe concerning the policy should proceed

■ Scope of CCI inquiry has no overlap with the case of alleged infringement of user privacy pending before SC