The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal “ruled that the multiple actions by WhatsApp and Meta, for which the Commission made findings of violations, were correctly identified, and that the Commission did not err in making those findings”, Ijagwu said.
Meta has until the end of June to pay the fine, local media reported.
Nigeria had accused Meta of violating the country’s data protection and consumer rights laws on Facebook and WhatsApp.
FCCPC chief executive officer Adamu Abdullahi said investigations carried out in conjunction with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed “invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria”.
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Abdullahi accused Meta of discriminatory practices, abuse of market dominance, sharing Nigerians’ data without authorisation and denying Nigerians the right to determine how their data are used.A WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email statement after the fine was first announced in June 2024 that “we disagree with this decision as well as the fine.”
The country had some 164.3 million internet subscriptions as of March, according to figures published on the National Communication Commission’s website.
Meta’s social media platforms — WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram — are among the most popular in the country.
Meta is facing a similar headache in Europe after the EU fined it 200 million euros over its “pay or consent” system, which violated rules on the use of personal data on Facebook and Instagram.
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