Social media giant Meta has been ordered by European Union antitrust regulators to give rival AI companies, including OpenAI, free access to WhatsApp while authorities continue investigating whether the company abused its market position, according to a Reuters report. The decision is part of an ongoing EU probe into claims that Meta unfairly blocked competing AI services from accessing WhatsApp while allowing its own Meta AI assistant to operate on the platform. Regulators said the move is necessary because the AI market is developing rapidly and access to messaging platforms could play a key role in how consumers use AI services in the future.
EU raises concerns over Meta’s practices
As per Reuters, the European Commission launched its investigation in December after receiving complaints from several companies, including California-based The Interaction Company, French AI startup Agentik and a Spanish rival.The Commission later charged Meta with possible breaches of EU antitrust rules and added further charges after the company introduced fees for access to WhatsApp’s business tools.EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said regulators were concerned that Meta could use WhatsApp’s reach to benefit its own AI products while making it difficult for competitors to compete.“It seems that Meta expects to leverage the vast reach and likely dominance of WhatsApp to benefit its own AI assistant and to foreclose rivals,” Ribera said, according to Reuters.“It is now a critical time. AI markets are developing exceptionally fast and AI systems are expected to become an important way for consumers all across Europe to access and use AI,” she added.
What Meta has been ordered to do
Reuters reported that Meta blocked rival AI services from accessing its WhatsApp Business application programming interface (API) in October while exempting its own Meta AI service.The company later allowed competitors back onto the platform in March, but only through paid access, a move that drew objections from EU regulators.Under the interim order, Meta must restore access to the WhatsApp Business API under the same terms that existed before October. The company has been given five working days to comply.The order will remain in place while the investigation continues, or until June 2029 at the latest.
Meta plans to appeal
Meta criticized the EU decision and said it plans to challenge the order.“The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” a Meta spokesperson said, according to Reuters.“This is regulatory overreach subsidised by the many European companies that pay. We will appeal.”According to Reuters, Meta could face fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover if regulators ultimately find that it violated EU antitrust rules.
