EU antitrust regulators have ordered Meta to give rival AI chatbot services free access to WhatsApp while they investigate whether the company abused its market power by blocking competitors from the messaging platform.
The European Commission issued the interim measure after complaints from several AI companies, including California-based The Interaction Company, which develops the Poke.com AI assistant, French startup Agentik, and a Spanish rival.
The complaints led the Commission to open an investigation in December. Two months later, EU regulators sent charges to Meta, accusing the company of breaching antitrust rules. Additional charges followed in April after Meta introduced access fees for rival AI services.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said Meta’s fees were so high that it would not be economically sustainable for competitors to continue using WhatsApp. She said Meta’s explanation for the charges did not convince regulators.
Ribera said the Commission believes Meta may be trying to use WhatsApp’s huge reach to strengthen its own Meta AI assistant while making it harder for rival AI services to compete. She also said the timing is important because AI markets are developing very quickly and AI assistants are expected to become a major way for people in Europe to access digital services.
The interim order will remain in place while the investigation continues, or until June 2029 at the latest.
Meta criticized the decision and said it plans to appeal. A company spokesperson said the European Commission had decided that OpenAI and other large companies should be allowed to use the paid WhatsApp Business product for free. Meta described the move as regulatory overreach that would be subsidized by European companies already paying for the service.
Meta blocked rival AI services from accessing the WhatsApp Business API in October. The API allows businesses and developers to connect their own systems to WhatsApp. Meta’s own assistant, Meta AI, was not affected by the restriction.
In March, Meta allowed competing AI services back onto the platform, but only for a fee. That move drew further objections from EU regulators.
Under the Commission’s interim measure, Meta must restore rival access to the WhatsApp Business API under the same terms and conditions that existed before October. The company has five working days to comply.
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If Meta is found to have breached EU antitrust rules, it could face a fine of up to 10 percent of its global annual turnover.
EU Orders Meta To Give Rival AI Chatbots Free Access To WhatsApp
