A New Route for CSR Deployment: ZCZP Instruments on the Social Stock Exchange
If your company is required to spend on Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) under the Companies Act, 2013 (“Act”), a new and structured route is now available, effective from May 27, 2026. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) has amended the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (“CSR Rules”) to permit companies to direct a portion of their CSR budget through the Social Stock Exchange (“SSE”) via Zero Coupon Zero Principal (“ZCZP”) instruments. This update is of direct relevance to compliance teams, CSR committees, company secretaries, and in-house counsel.
Supreme Court Affirms Piercing of the Corporate Veil in CIRP
In a significant ruling dated May 5, 2026, the Supreme Court of India in Alpha Corp Development Private Limited v. Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority reinforced the legal principle that a corporate debtor’s subsidiaries may not always be treated as legally distinct entities during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”). The Court’s reasoning was anchored not only in established doctrine but also in a pointed evaluation of the conduct of a statutory authority that failed to engage with the CIRP process in any meaningful way. GNIDA’s conduct was one of the material factors that influenced the scope of relief ultimately granted by the Court.
The Algorithmic Trap: Ai Designs and Addiction in Children
In March 2026, in California, a Los Angeles jury in the case of K.G.M. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., found Meta and Google liable for a young woman’s depression and suicidal thoughts after she claimed that she became addictive to social media platforms at 9-years. The jury found Meta Platforms and Google liable for the depression, anxiety, body image disorders, and suicidal ideation suffered by a young woman who had become addicted to Instagram and YouTube from the age of nine. The jury awarded USD 3 million in damages, Meta bearing 70% of responsibility, Google the remaining 30%.
The verdict marked a turning point. For the first time, a jury accepted the proposition at the heart of a growing global movement: the harm arose not from the content users posted, but from the platforms’ own engineering, from infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic recommendation, notification architecture, and engagement optimisation systems that were designed, tested, and deployed to compel use. The product itself was the defect!
Misleading Dark Patterns on Digital Platform: Consent Engineered Through Guilt
On June 01, 2026, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued a significant order against Physicswallah Limited (hereinafter referred to as Party), the EdTech unicorn behind the pw.live platform, finding it guilty of deploying three distinct dark patterns. The matter taken up suo moto by CCPA culminated in a penalty of INR 5,00,000 and a binding direction to eliminate all dark patterns from the platform immediately.
The CCPA order identified three practices on Party’s official website and phone application as the subject of the suo moto proceeding:
- Basket Sneaking- the Pre-Selected INR 10 donation
The CCPA observed that the Party had pre-selected the option “Donate for PW Foundation” during the purchase process, thereby automatically adding INR 10 to the final payable amount without obtaining explicit consent from consumers.The pre-ticked donation feature remained operational from February 14. 2024 o December 24, 2025, for approximately a period of 22 months contributing to donation amount of INR 2.47 crore from 21,36,962 users.The mechanism was disabled on December 24, 2025, following receipt of first CCPA notice dated December 04, 2025.The CCPA’s Director General (Investigation), in the investigating report found this constituted Basket Sneaking that is the automatic addition of charges to a transaction without the consumer’s explicit consent, which capitalizes on expedited transactions to induce unintended financial commitments and fundamentally pressurizes consumer decision-making while compromising transactional transparency. - Confirm Shaming- the “know more” guilt trigger
When a consumer clicked “know more” in relation to the donation feature, the message displayed mention that to empower lives through supporting marriages financially of needy people, advancing education of children and promoting healthcare in underserved communities- donate to support the cause.This message was presented simultaneously with a pre-selected donation option during a moral pressure and emotional obligation upon consumer to retain the donation amount rather than exercising a free and neutral choice.The CCPA concluded this as a manipulative interface design and violating the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 by creating a sense of fear or shame or ridicule or guilt in the mind of the user so as to nudge the user to act in a certain way. The combination of pre-selected default and guilt inducing messaging when the user sought to investigate the charge was held to fall squarely within this definition. - Forced Action-Personal Data as the Price of “Free” Course
The CCPA also found that the Party promoted educational courses as “free” while simultaneously requiring consumers to mandatorily furnish mobile numbers and email IDs before access could be granted.The CCPA independently accessed the free course through multiple test accounts and found that the educational content, including videos and study material, remained identical across accounts and no elements of personalization, customized learning pathway or differentiated academic experience was found to be associated with the collection of email addresses or mobile numbers contradicting to the Party’s stated justification for mandatory data collection.
The SIPP Scheme: What Its Expiry Means for Startups
The recent notified version of the Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) came to an end on 31 March 2026. As of May 2026, there has been no official announcement indicating an extension, renewal, or replacement of the scheme.
Launched in 2016 under the Startup India initiative, SIPP was created to make intellectual property protection more accessible for startups by reducing the financial burden of hiring professional IP services. Over nearly a decade, the scheme enabled thousands of patent, trademark, and design applications by allowing eligible applicants to access government-supported IP facilitation.
The scheme was implemented through the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM). It linked DPIIT-recognized startups and other eligible applicants with empanelled patent agents, trademark agents, and legal professionals. These facilitators supported applicants across the entire IP process, including drafting applications, filing documents, responding to examination reports, attending hearings, and completing final prosecution.
Supreme Court Set to Adjudicate Validity of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the DPDP Act’ or ‘the Act’) represents a landmark legislative development in India’s data governance landscape, being the country’s first comprehensive statute dedicated exclusively to the protection of digital personal data. Passed by Parliament in August 2023 and notified in November 2024, the Act is accompanied by the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (‘the DPDP Rules’), which prescribe a phased 18-month compliance timeline for data fiduciaries.
The legislative framework draws principally from the nine-judge constitutional bench decision of the Supreme Court of India in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 1, which unanimously affirmed the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The DPDP Act seeks to operationalise this right in the digital sphere through a consent-based model of data processing, accompanied by obligations on data fiduciaries and corresponding rights for data principals.
FSSAI Raises Turnover Limits for Food Business Registration and Licensing
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has revised the annual turnover thresholds that determine which category of registration or licence a Food Business Operator (FBO) must obtain. The change is effected through two instruments: the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified via gazette on 10th March, 2026 (the “Amendment Regulations”), and a subsequent implementation order dated 13th March, 2026 (the “Order”) issued by FSSAI directing all licensing authorities to apply the revised thresholds with effect from 1st April, 2026.
The revision follows recommendations of NITI Aayog’s High-Level Committee on Non-Financial Regulatory Reforms, constituted to identify and reduce the non-financial regulatory burden on Indian businesses. The Committee specifically recommended raising FSSAI thresholds to cut unnecessary compliance overhead for micro, small, and medium enterprises in the food sector and to bring the thresholds in line with current economic realities.