The European Union's antitrust regulators have ordered Meta to grant rival artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, free access to WhatsApp's business tools, according to a Reuters report. This interim measure comes as authorities investigate whether Meta abused its dominant market position by restricting competing AI services from accessing the messaging platform while allowing its own Meta AI assistant to operate freely.
EU Raises Concerns Over Meta's Practices
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 potential 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 expressed concerns that Meta could leverage WhatsApp's extensive reach to benefit its own AI products while hindering competitors. "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, which 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.
