Meta Platforms has approached the Delhi High Court challenging a Central Consumer Protection Authority order fining Facebook Rs 10,000 over Marketplace listings of regulated items like walkie-talkies and directing stricter compliance measures.
NEW DELHI: Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, has moved the Delhi High Court challenging a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) order that found Facebook Marketplace in breach of several laws by allowing walkie-talkies to be listed on the platform.
The CCPA’s January 1 direction fined Facebook Rs 10,000 and instructed the platform to enforce stringent compliance measures for listings of certain products, including walkie-talkies, drones, GPS devices and other regulated items.
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The order also required that no product needing statutory approval or certification be listed, hosted, advertised or sold without full legal compliance and mandatory disclosures. Facebook was further ordered to perform periodic self-audits to detect and prevent violations and to publish certificates of those audits, the CCPA said.
Meta challenged that order in the High Court. The matter was heard on Tuesday by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Arvind Datar represented Meta, stressing a key difference between Facebook Marketplace and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon or Flipkart.
Rohatgi told the Court.
“They [Amazon and Flipkart] are like virtual Khan Markets. They are e-commerce entities. We [Facebook] are not virtual Khan Markets. We are saying, we are a notice board. This is meant only for Facebook users… There is no commercial sale, we don’t charge anybody. Nobody is paying us anything,”
The Court asked why Meta had not approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) against the CCPA order.
The Court said,
“It’s a question of wrongful exercise of jurisdiction,”
Rohatgi countered that the issue was not merely wrongful exercise but an absolute lack of jurisdiction.
Rohatgi said,
“I am saying there is total absence of jurisdiction,”
The Court permitted Meta to file short notes and arguments on March 25 explaining why the CCPA order should be declared “completely without jurisdiction.”
In its petition, Meta argues the CCPA directive places obligations on both individual users and commercial sellers, creating operational demands that are “impracticable and onerous.”
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The plea states,
“If the Impugned Order is allowed to continue, individual users… would be compelled to comply with obligations designed for commercial sellers… These users would be faced with compliance requirements that are impracticable and onerous and would inevitably result in their exclusion from the platform, undermining the very purpose and utility of the Marketplace,”
Meta warned that the order’s wide reach and its characterization of the company as an e-commerce operator could have lasting effects, potentially shaping future regulation and damaging its reputation and business in India with no adequate remedy.
The petition also notes measures Meta has already taken, including removing non-compliant walkie-talkie listings, providing user data to authorities and deploying automated enforcement systems.
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