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The European Commission has officially “warned” Meta and is moving to order a rollback of recent changes to WhatsApp. The Commission notified Meta that it should reinstate rival artificial intelligence (AI) assistants on its WhatsApp messaging service, after the tech giant imposed an access fee that the regulator believes is designed to squeeze out competitors.“The Commission notified Meta that the revised policy seems to have the same effect of excluding third-party AI assistants from WhatsApp and thus appears at first sight to be in breach of EU competition rules,” the EU’s executive arm said, as per a report by news agency Reuters.“To prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition, the Commission intends to order Meta to reinstate access for third-party AI assistants under the same conditions as before 15 October 2025,” it added in the statement.
Interim measures will remain in place until the end of the investigation, it said.In March, Meta informed the Commission that it would allow rival AI assistants on WhatsApp for one year, contingent on a fee, after initially planning to ban third-party AI chatbots from WhatsApp Business.
What Meta said in reply
The company has replied to the Commission’s statement, using OpenAI’s name for rebuttal. Meta argues that by forcing them to provide these services for free to large AI companies, the EU is actually hurting the small businesses.
“The European Commission is proposing to use its regulatory powers to enable some of the largest companies in the world to use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying.“This means that a small bakery in France paying to use the service to take croissant orders will be picking up the tab for OpenAI. Small European businesses shouldn't foot OpenAI's bill,” the spokesperson added. The Commission also said that its investigation had been expanded to Italy, where the Italian competition watchdog had opened its own probe last year.
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