Algorithmic Pricing - Competition Law and Data Protection

In January 2025, India’s Consumer Protection Authority issued notices to Ola and Uber on the allegation that these ride-sharing platforms were pricing services differentially based on the profile of the user — iPhones were charged higher than Android devices and (anecdotally) also variably based on a device’s remaining battery level. The question of processing user data extraneous to the relevant service is increasingly prominent in competition law. For instance, via a recent order (now stayed in appeal), the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) imposed a five-year ban on WhatsApp’s practice of sharing data with Meta that was extraneous to the providing of messaging services, finding it to be an abuse of dominance on various counts under the Competition Act: [t]he Commission is of the view that in the present case, the information on record clearly evidences that users were made to accept the 2021 Update, which mandated sharing of data for purposes other than providing WhatsApp services, without offering any choice to opt-out from the same. This imposition disregards legitimate expectations of users to decide as to how their data would be collected and used … (see, In Re: Updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for WhatsApp users, CCI 2024)