[Update] Bombay HC Rejects Meta’s Plea To Move Blink Digital’s ₹1,000 Cr Suit To US

The Bombay High Court has rejected Meta’s jurisdiction challenge in Blink Digital’s ₹1,000 Cr suit over disabled advertising accounts

The ruling allows the suit to proceed before the Bombay High Court

Meta argued that its terms require disputes to be heard in California, but the court held that private contracts cannot override mandatory Indian laws

Update | October 28, 11:16 IST

The Bombay High Court rejected Meta Platforms Inc.’s plea challenging its jurisdiction to hear a ₹1,000 Cr commercial suit filed by digital advertising agency Blink Digital India.

Meta sought the return of the suit for filing before a US court, arguing that its terms require commercial disputes to be resolved exclusively in California under Californian law.

However, Justice Sandeep V Marne held that private contracts cannot override mandatory Indian laws. The court noted that the dispute went beyond a contractual breach, with both parties raising allegations of violations of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The court also noted that Meta’s Indian subsidiary and co-defendant, Facebook India Online Services, had not challenged its jurisdiction. Meta could not raise that objection on its subsidiary’s behalf, it said.

Blink Digital filed the suit after Meta disabled four of its Business Manager accounts and around 9,000 linked advertising accounts in August this year. The agency is seeking restoration of the accounts and ₹1,000 Cr in damages.

Original | September 23, 18:14 IST

Advertising agency Blink Digital India has recently sued Meta and its India entity Facebook India Online Services Private Limited for a compensation of about ₹1,000 Cr over four ‘Meta Business Manager’ accounts that were disabled by the latter on its platform. 

As per the court’s documents, Blink Digital filed its complaint with the Bombay High Court on September 17 (Thursday). The ad agency is seeking restoration of its accounts and compensation for the disabling of its four accounts. 

For context, Meta Business Manager is a free backend dashboard that lets businesses and agencies securely manage their Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, ad accounts, pixels, and team permissions in one place.

Advocate representing Meta, Janak Dwarakadas, has been granted time of two weeks to file an affidavit in reply opposing the interim application of Blink Digital. Following which, the court has allowed a week’s time for the advertising company to file rejoinder to Meta’s affidavit.

The case’s hearing is set for October 12 (Monday). 

Blink Digital India, an advertising agency founded in 2009, is headed by Dooj Ramchandani and works with brands on digital campaigns, websites, apps, social media, immersive experiences, games, video and other technology-led marketing initiatives.

Some of its prominent clients include KFC, ITC, Star Sports, Vh1, Condé Nast, Moët Hennessy, Viber and Puma.

For agencies such as Blink Digital, Meta’s business manager platform serves as an operational layer for managing clients’ advertising infrastructure, while campaigns themselves are created and managed via the Meta Ads Manager.

Disabling this resulted in ad campaigns associated with Blink Digital to stop running, also leading to the loss of access to advertising features, including the ability to create or manage advertising activity through the affected portfolio.

The development adds on to the growing legal scrutiny of Meta in India in recent times. Most recently, the tech major came under heavy regulatory scrutiny over instances of child sexual abuse content on its platforms. Meta has agreed to report such instances to the central government moving forward. 

Beyond regulatory hurdles, Meta was also recently sued by media giant Zee over copyright infringement. Zee alleged that users were uploading and monetising its IP content without approval. While the HC has directed Meta to remove the allegedly infringing content, it declined to block the Facebook accounts in question at this stage.

Earlier in May, the Delhi HC passed a John Doe order directing Meta to take down multiple Facebook URLs allegedly hosting Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (ZEEL) unauthorised content. 

Source: Inc42