Brazil’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to temporarily stop enforcing a new policy that blocks third-party AI companies from using its business API to offer chatbots on the app.
The regulator has also opened an investigation to check whether the policy breaks competition laws.
The authority, known as CADE, said there are signs that WhatsApp’s updated business terms could be anti-competitive. According to the agency, the new rules may unfairly limit access for AI tool providers and could give an advantage to Meta AI, Meta’s own chatbot available on WhatsApp.
Meta changed its WhatsApp Business API rules last October. Under the new terms, third-party AI companies are no longer allowed to offer their chatbots through WhatsApp once the policy takes effect on January 15. After this announcement, companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity said their chatbots would no longer be available on the platform. However, the rules still allow businesses to use their own chatbots, whether powered by AI or not, to communicate with customers on WhatsApp.
CADE will now examine whether Meta’s policy unfairly excludes competitors and restricts the market in a way that violates competition laws. The Brazilian move follows similar actions in other regions. The European Union and Italy have already launched investigations into the same policy. If the EU finds Meta in violation of its antitrust rules, the company could face fines of up to 10 percent of its global revenue.
Meta has already made an exception in Italy, telling AI developers that they can continue offering their chatbots to users there even after the January deadline. This has raised the possibility that Meta could take a similar approach in Brazil following CADE’s order.
Meta did not comment immediately on the Brazilian decision. In the past, the company has argued that third-party AI chatbots put pressure on systems that were not designed for that purpose. Meta has also said that users who want to access different AI chatbots can do so outside of WhatsApp.
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When the policy was first announced, a Meta spokesperson said the main goal of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send useful updates. The company says its priority is supporting the many businesses that rely on WhatsApp to communicate with customers.
