In brief
- The European Commission launched an antitrust investigation into Meta’s policy which blocks AI providers from using WhatsApp’s business tools to offer chatbots when AI is the primary service.
- Meta’s policy change allows its own Meta AI to remain accessible on WhatsApp while potentially shutting out competitors from reaching customers through the messaging platform.
- The probe covers the entire European Economic Area except Italy, investigating whether the company violated competition rules prohibiting abuse of dominant market positions.
Europe’s competition regulator has opened a formal investigation into tech giant Meta over policy changes that allow the company’s own AI chatbot to operate on WhatsApp while blocking rivals from doing the same.
The European Commission announced Thursday it’s examining whether Meta violated antitrust rules by effectively reserving WhatsApp’s AI chatbot access for itself.
The action targets updated business terms WhatsApp rolled out in late October, which ban third-party AI companies from distributing chatbots through the messaging app when AI is their core offering.
Under the updated WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, AI providers are “strictly prohibited” from using the business API when AI technologies are “the primary (rather than incidental or ancillary) functionality being made available for use.”
“The Commission is concerned that such new policy may prevent third-party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area,” the statement reads.
The policy takes effect January 15, 2026, for existing AI providers already on the platform, while new AI providers have been blocked since October 15.
Businesses can still use AI for backend support, like automated customer service responses, according to the policy.
Decrypt has reached out to Meta for further comment.
“In EU antitrust law, the Commission does not need to prove that Meta intended to exclude competitors—only that the policy is capable of producing exclusionary effects,” Ishita Sharma, managing partner at Fathom Legal, told Decrypt.
If proven, Meta’s actions would violate Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement—both prohibit companies from abusing dominant market positions.
Violations under those provisions can include limiting markets to harm consumers or applying different conditions to equivalent transactions that disadvantage competitors.
“The key legal question is whether Meta’s policy materially reduces rivals’ ability to compete on AI-enabled services,” she added, noting that if so, the Commission can establish “an abuse of dominance regardless of whether Meta argues security, safety, or product-integration justifications.”
The probe excludes Italy, where the country’s competition authority is already pursuing separate proceedings against Meta over the same conduct.
The commission said it will prioritize the case but noted that opening formal proceedings “does not prejudge its outcome.”
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Source: https://decrypt.co/351029/eu-opens-antitrust-probe-meta-new-ai-policy-whatsapp
