1 week Ago By Boluwatife Omotayo
WhatsApp has announced that it will urgently seek a stay of execution and appeal the ruling by Nigeria’s Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT), which upheld a $220 million penalty imposed by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). This was disclosed in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) where WhatsApp expressed strong disagreement with the tribunal’s decision. Read also: WhatsApp will stop working on these phones in May Alongside the penalty, the tribunal ordered WhatsApp and Meta, to pay an additional $35,000 to the FCCPC to cover the commission’s investigative costs related to the companies’ data policies.
The tribunal also dismissed the appeal filed by WhatsApp and Meta, reinforcing the FCCPC’s position on safeguarding Nigerian users’ data rights. Reacting to the judgment, WhatsApp said it would “urgently apply to stay the order and appeal today’s decision to avoid any impact to users.” The company stressed its disagreement with the ruling, arguing that the FCCPC’s decision contained “multiple inaccuracies” and “misrepresented how WhatsApp works.
” Read also: The WhatsApp economy: How social commerce is rewriting retail rules WhatsApp further warned that the ruling could have far-reaching consequences for its operations in Nigeria and beyond. “It will be impossible to provide WhatsApp in Nigeria, or globally, without the infrastructure of our parent company, Meta,” WhatsApp noted. The tribunal’s verdict affirmed the $220 million fine initially imposed on WhatsApp and Meta over alleged discriminatory data practices affecting Nigerian users.
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