WhatsApp not abusing dominance for payments business: CCI – Times of India

BENGALURU: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has rejected a case against Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which said the messaging platform was abusing its dominant position to expand in the digital payments market in India. The case, filed in March, said WhatsApp was forcing its large user base to use its payments service, which is available within the app. WhatsApp, in its submissions to CCI, said it was only a value-added service on top of its messaging service.
“…the Commission tends to agree with WhatsApp that this allegation is premature,” the CCI order said. “..the Commission is of the opinion that there exists no prima facie case of contravention and the information filed is directed to be closed under Section 26(2) of the Act,” it added.
While CCI has dismissed the complaint against WhatsApp, it mentioned in its order that the commission does not agree with WhatsApp’s submission that there is no anti-competitive effect of offering WhatsApp Pay. The competition regulator did not elaborate further on the matter.
WhatsApp has 400 million active users per month in India and has been stuck in beta-mode (1 million users) for two years. Last month TOI reported saying National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has confirmed WhatsApp Pay’s data localisation compliance in line with RBI guidelines. The banking regulator, however, has not still given a timeline or the final approval for WhatsApp to take its payments service beyond the restricted beta-stage.