Why Competition Commission of India Didn’t Find WhatsApp Indulging In Abuse of Dominance
In a 2017 case challenging WhatsApp’s data sharing with Facebook, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) declared that there exists a distinct market for instant messaging services using smartphone apps.
The effectiveness of this ‘opt out’ was in doubt even then and is certainly not on the table anymore.
The CCI subsequently reiterated its findings on WhatsApp’s dominance in two other cases. The regulatory position on WhatsApp’s market power, therefore, seems clear. Yet, it is a position that WhatsApp continues to deny. It may even try to use the current episode to claim that the switching behaviour of users demonstrates that it actually faces competitive constraints. Any such claim would, however, need to be weighed against the reality of WhatsApp’s direct network effects and the limitations on user choice due to the lack of interoperability between messaging apps.
The test,…