Regulating Big Data: Contextualising CCI Probe into WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy

The CCI’s recent order directing an investigation into WhatsApp’s privacy policy provides us with the opportunity to look at how competition regulators, both in India and abroad, have sought to regulate data collection and sharing. There are multiple concerns to be balanced in this process – the ability of businesses with large data sets to better serve customers, entry barriers to new business with access to comparatively smaller data sets, and increased consumer dependency on a limited set of players. The CCI’s recent order could be indicative of its recognition of these concerns and its intention to take a more interventionist approach where it believes that user data is being exploited in a manner that creates entry barriers or otherwise adversely impacts competition or consumers’ interests.


Cases analysis

Case Note: Judgement of the Supreme Court in the Essar Steel Case

By a judgment dated November 15, 2019, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel India Limited v. Satish Kumar Gupta and Others delivered its final verdict on the acquisition of Essar Steel India Limited under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The proceedings under the IBC in relation to the acquisition of Essar Steel lasted for more than two years and laid down precedents on several questions arising out of the then newly introduced insolvency legislation in India. This paper is a comment on this judgment. It critically analyses the decision of the Supreme Court and the impact of the judgment on insolvency law in India.