ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4163-9412
Keywords
Competition Law, Excessive Data Collection, Consumer Choice, Exploitative abuse, Exclusionary abuse, Digital Advertising
Abstract
The interface between privacy and competition law has been a complicated topic in the past decade. The Facebook case by the German competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt (BK) was the first landmark case to investigate an exploitative abuse in this interface. The WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update prompted the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to initiate a suo moto investigation against WhatsApp/Meta regarding the anti-competitive effects of imposing a ‘take-it or leave-it’ agreement on consumers.
In the WhatsApp case, the CCI has pushed the boundaries further in this interface by investigating exclusionary abuses regarding excessive data collection in an ecosystem. This case comment critically analyses the final order by CCI in three sections: exploitative abuse in comparison with the Facebook case by BK, exclusionary abuses in the digital advertising market and the remedy imposed on restricting data usage within Meta’s ecosystem.
Acknowledgements
Funding
This article received no funding.
Declaration of Conflict of Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and publication of this article.
Declaration about the scope of AI utilisation
The author did not use AI in the preparation of this article.
Recommended Citation
Abraham, R. P. (2025). [Preprint] Excessive Data collection in an Ecosystem as an Exploitative and Exclusionary abuse A critical analysis of the CCI’s order against WhatsApp’s privacy policy and its impact on the digital advertising market. Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 18(32). https://doi.org/10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2025.18.32.2
Page Count
16
DOI
10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2025.18.32.2
JEL Code
K21, K24
Publisher
University of Warsaw
