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The Uttar Pradesh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission said that consumer complaints can be filed against WhatsApp. The decision came after a six-hour service outage, which led complainant Amitabh Thakur, a former IPS officer and currently the National President of Azad Adhikar Sena, to file a consumer complaint because the disruption affected his work.
The complaint filed by Thakur was initially rejected by the district-level Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Lucknow on the grounds that WhatsApp is an international company and the complainant did not have to pay to use its services.
Following the dismissal, the state-level commission said that WhatsApp is a ‘service’ provider to users in India indicating that Thakur’s complaint is acceptable. Sushil Kumar (Chairman Member) and Sudha Upadhyay (Member) of the state commission said, “WhatsApp’s work is done between two people. The purpose of this work is to attract people and provide business services to WhatsApp. Actually, WhatsApp is a service provider company. This company also provides services in India, so it cannot be said that it is a foreign company, and it’s a business company.”
According to a report published by LiveLaw, the order, consisting of three pages, rejected the district-level commission’s decision that WhatsApp users are not its consumers. After holding that the complaint seeking compensation is maintainable, the order passed by the District Consumer Commission was put aside by the state-level commission.
The state-level body directed the district-level commission to register the complaint and reach a decision on compensation within 90 days. According to WhatsApp’s disclaimers, the company states that the operation of services without disruptions, delays and inconsistencies is not guaranteed.
The demand for communication platforms to maintain quality of service is not unusual, as several telecom companies in India, such as Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have previously said that over-the-top (OTT) services, like WhatsApp and Telegram, should be brought under a licensing regime by the government. They insisted that such companies follow similar requirements to those of India-based telecom companies to level the playing field. It would include quality of service standards.
The news that consumers can file complaints against WhatsApp for service inconsistencies could strengthen demands by telecom companies for quality of service requirements to be imposed on social platforms.
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