Convergence of Competition Law and Constitutional Rights: A Comparative Study of the WhatsApp (India) and Facebook (Germany) Cases

Paper by Anush Ganesh, and Krusha Bhatt: “As society advances toward a digital economy with increasing dependence on internet-based services, data has attained prominence as an essential currency supporting market power. This paper examines the emerging jurisprudence on excessive data collection by dominant digital platforms, comparing approaches developed in India and the European Union. The Indian approach, exemplified by the WhatsApp Privacy (2025) decision, integrates competition law with constitutional protections, particularly the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Meanwhile, the European approach, crystallized in the Facebook Germany case, integrates competition law with data protection principles enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Despite their different legal foundations, these approaches display convergence in recognizing that dominant platforms’ data collection practices can constitute abusive exploitation of market power. This paper argues that this convergence creates opportunities for a unified analytical framework that respects jurisdictional diversity while enabling more effective global platform regulation…(More)”.