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Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Privacy, Whatsapp

, (National Law University)/ /Leave a comment

The market landscape has drastically been altered with the rise of platform-based business models setting in motion a new wave of capitalism transforming the erstwhile relationship between consumers and businesses. The erstwhile practice of building up physical assets to highlight economic prowess has been replaced by a more subtle mechanism of increasing access to the…

Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Investigations, Privacy, Whatsapp

, , (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /Leave a comment

On 24 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) passed an order initiating investigation against WhatsApp Inc. (‘WhatsApp’) and Facebook Inc. (‘FB’) to determine if WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy terms allowing it to share user data with FB and its subsidiaries constituted an abuse of dominance (‘Initiation Order’).[1] The Initiation Order shoves India’s competition…

Competition Commission of India, Digital economy, Digital markets, Facebook, India, Tying and Bundling, Whatsapp

(Chambers of Adv Shresth Gautam) and (LexStart)/ /Leave a comment

The antitrust watchdog of India recently in Harshita Chawla v Whatsapp and Facebook[1] held that Whatsapp’s proposed model of integrating its payments app called ‘Whatsapp Pay’ (‘WPay’) within its messaging app is not anti-competitive since it does not constitute ‘tying in’ due to lack of coercion. In reaching such a conclusion the Competition Commission of…

Dawn raids, Netherlands, Türkiye, Whatsapp

, (ACTECON)/ /Leave a comment

Dawn raids may become a nerve-racking experience for companies that are under scrutiny of competition authorities and their employees. During a dawn raid, which is performed without prior notice, employees of the relevant undertaking who lack proper training may act in a way that can expose their companies to monetary fine. Dawn raids are often…

Digital markets, Facebook, Merger regulation, Whatsapp

(Mergers and Acquisitions Division, COMESA Competition Commission)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Most Competition Authorities the world-over that are involved in ex-ante or ex-post merger review process use tools that are in some way universally accepted. This is because these tools have been developed and tested over time. Some of these tools include the merger notification thresholds for determining nexus, the market definition tools to determine…

Antitrust, Competition, European Commission, European Union, Facebook, Germany, Market definition, Mergers, Whatsapp

(Baker McKenzie, Belgium)/ /Leave a comment

“Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering ‘it will be happier’…” Introduction This quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson might – I sincerely hope after recent events – be applicable to life generally in Brussels in 2017. But not so – I fear – in the world of EU merger control. It…