The Competition Tribunal has issued rulings in a series of interlocutory applications in an alleged abuse of dominance case between South African chat platform GovChat and WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms.
GovChat is a citizen engagement platform that uses WhatsApp's technology for various South African government-sanctioned communications services.
In 2020, WhatsApp notified GovChat and its government clients that they could be off-boarded for alleged non-compliance with WhatsApp's terms of service.
The platform's owner, which was then still operating under the name of one of its other companies -- Facebook -- alleged GovChat refused to comply and refused offers of help to become compliant.
One issue was that GovChat's name implied it was an official government site, despite not being authorised to render government services to citizens.
Facebook also alleged GovChat was gathering sensitive personal information from citizens without controls limiting how it could share this information with third parties.
GovChat approached the tribunal for interim relief in November 2020, which was granted, blocking WhatsApp from booting GovChat pending an investigation by the Competition Commission.
In March 2022, the commission referred the complaint of alleged abuse of dominance to the tribunal for prosecution. It found that WhatsApp had tried to unfairly block GovChat from using its Business API.
The commission also asked the tribunal to impose the maximum penalty against Meta Platforms, WhatsApp, and Facebook South Africa, which would amount to 10% of their collective turnover.
GovChat and #LetsTalk applied to the tribunal for participation rights in the proceedings, which the tribunal granted in July 2023 following a hearing.
In the most recent development, the tribunal heard four interlocutary applications from 1 to 3 December 2025 to address pre-trial disputes between the parties ahead of hearings into the main matter.
"The interlocutory applications concerned disputes over discovery, evidentiary issues and a summons issued to a GovChat witness," the Tribunal explained.
In the first matter, the Tribunal ruled in favour of GovChat in an application seeking an order directing Meta, WhatsApp, and Facebook to provide full responses to a discovery request from October 2024.
That included document-by-document disclosure and compliance with a further and better discovery demand.
The Tribunal issued an order requiring further discovery and regulating the process in respect of the discovery going forward.
Meta, WhatsApp, and Facebook also launched a parallel application against the local platforms to meet their own discovery obligations.
The companies argued that GovChat's responses to initial and further discovery requests were inadequate and had impeded progress.
The tribunal dismissed the trio's application but will only provide its reasons for the decision in "due course".
The third application was launched by Bradley Sacks in his capacity as the CEO of Capital Appreciation, a GovChat shareholder.
Sacks applied for an order setting aside a summons from Meta Platforms and WhatsApp requiring that he produce documents and information. The tribunal also dismissed this request.
The tribunal has yet to rule on a strike-out application brought by Meta Platforms, WhatsApp, and Facebook seeking the removal of portions of evidence in two witness statements filed by GovChat.