The Competition Commission of India's (CCI) investigation into Whatsapp's alleged antitrust practises has been postponed due to the instant messaging service's reluctance to share information on its revised privacy policy.

CCI launched an investigation into Whatsapp's new privacy policy in March 2021, but the firm has yet to provide the materials requested or react to CCI's prima-facie findings.

The technology corporation is said to be taking the position that the platform will not share its thoughts on the matter until the new data privacy law is passed by parliament. Meanwhile, it's been reported that the social networking platform has transferred most of its Indian users to the new privacy policy on a 'voluntary basis.'

CCI, on the other hand, believes that its investigation has nothing to do with data privacy since the emphasis of the examination is on whether the instant messaging network has leveraged its market dominance to coerce users to sign up for its new privacy policy.

Whatsapp will be permitted to share user data with third parties, including its parent company Facebook, under the new privacy policy. This is to assist Whatsapp in monetizing and generating revenue from user data.

CCI has sent Whatsapp three notices, the first two in March 2021 and the third in June 2021. Whatsapp challenged the CCI's authority to order an investigation into its privacy policy in the Delhi High Court. The matter is still pending.

As interim relief, Whatsapp requested a stay on these proceedings, which the court has yet to grant, thus there is no hold on the investigation.

The corporation is still seeking adjournments in order to postpone delivering information to CCI, which is critical to the investigation's progress. Furthermore, they are moving forward with the implementation of a new privacy policy that is currently under investigation.

Originally, Whatsapp's new privacy policy required users to accept it, failing which several of the app's main functions would cease to work. CCI claimed that Whatsapp was abusing its market dominance to push its users to embrace the revised privacy policy.

Whatsapp assured the Delhi Court in July 2021 that it would not force users to switch to the modified privacy policy, and that existing users' features would not be reduced if they did not accept the conditions of the new policy.

According to the Delhi High Court website, Whatsapp was given until July 2021 to react to court notices and submit its thoughts on the case, which was initially extended until August 27, 2021. The court has granted Whatsapp four extensions since then, and the new date for filing the reply is July 21, 2022.