AI chatbots on WhatsApp: Meta must allow competitors
The EU Commission believes Meta's fee policy for AI assistants in WhatsApp may violate EU competition rules.
(Image: Hengki Tj/Shutterstock.com)
The European Commission will instruct Meta to allow competing AI chatbots in its WhatsApp messenger service. The Commission announced this on Wednesday. The move comes after the US tech giant introduced an access fee in early March.
In February, the EU Commission launched an investigation against Meta. The Commission believes that Meta is making it difficult for competitors to access WhatsApp data, thus violating European competition law. The competition watchdogs threatened with enforcement measures, after which Meta temporarily allowed competing AI assistants back on WhatsApp in March for one year and for a fee.
Alleged violation of competition rules
After analyzing the effects of these changes, the Commission has now informed Meta that “the revised policy apparently has the same effect, namely the exclusion of third-party AI assistants from WhatsApp, and thus at first glance violates EU competition rules.”
“To avoid serious and irreparable damage to competition, the Commission intends to instruct Meta to restore access for third-party AI assistants under the same conditions as before October 15, 2025,” it said in a statement, quoted by the Reuters news agency. The Commission's interim measure is therefore valid until the investigation is concluded.
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Meta's reaction
Under EU law, competition authorities can order companies to temporarily cease business practices that allegedly violate European law. These instructions can, in turn, be challenged in EU courts.
“The European Commission plans to use its regulatory powers to allow some of the world's largest companies to use the paid WhatsApp Business product for free,” a Meta spokesperson explained in an email. “This means that a small bakery in France that pays to use the service to take croissant orders will bear the cost for OpenAI. Small European businesses should not have to pay for OpenAI.”
The Commission also announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its investigation to Italy. This was previously excluded from the investigation because the Italian competition authority had launched its own investigation last year into alleged distortions of competition by WhatsApp's AI policy. This was due to suspected abuse of a dominant market position in the AI chatbot sector.
(akn)
