Delhi High Court Orders LinkedIn to Furnish Details of Grievance Officer on Its Website

Delhi High Court Orders LinkedIn to Furnish Details of Grievance Officer on Its Website

The Delhi High Court has ordered the social media platform LinkedIn to comply with the mandate under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and publish details like physical and email addresses of its Grievance Officers on its website.

The single judge Justice Prathiba M Singh directed LinkedIn to place on record the details of its Grievance Officers and the rules applicable to persons creating LinkedIn profiles, as per LinkedIn’s own policy.

The Court ordered, “Defendant No. 1-LinkedIn shall place on record the details of the Grievance Officers and the Rules applicable to persons creating LinkedIn profiles, as per LinkedIn’s own policy. In addition, LinkedIn shall also place on record the SoP, if any, followed by the Grievance Officers whenever a grievance is received under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.”

The Court clarified that the details of the Grievance Officers in terms of 2021 Rules including the physical and email address shall be published openly for the public access on the website of LinkedIn.

A lawsuit was filed by Tata Sky Limited against LinkedIn and other parties

Tata Sky, one of India’s leading DTH and Pay TV platform- last year announced its new name and identity, Tata Play, as its business interests grew beyond Direct to Home services.

Tata Play alleged that numerous individuals had created profiles on LinkedIn falsely indicating themselves as its employees.

The lawsuit submitted that several people were also unlawfully using the name ‘TATA SKY’ in their profile descriptions on the platform without any authorisation, license, or permission and falsely portraying themselves as being retail sellers of Tata Sky.

Several of them were unlawfully using the name Tata Sky in their profile descriptions without any authorization, license, or permission from the plaintiff.

After noting the facts and submissions of the case, the High Court observed that the proliferation of fake profiles would make it extremely difficult for the plaintiff to approach the Court and therefore, an effective framework is required.

The Court, therefore, passed several directions to LinkedIn and listed the case for further consideration on 28 November, 2023.

Advocate Tanmaya Mehta appeared for Tata Play.

Advocates Sanjay Kumar, Abhishek Kumar Singh, Saurabh Kumar and Rose Maria SEBI appeared for LinkedIn.