The European Union has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Meta’s decision to change policy on WhatsApp’s business-API, which bans rival AI chatbot providers from distributing their services via the app — even as Meta’s own AI assistant, Meta AI, remains unaffected. Under the new rules, third-party AI platforms such as ChatGPT or Perplexity would no longer be allowed to reach users via WhatsApp, raising serious concerns among EU competition watchdogs that Meta is leveraging its dominant position to stifle competition. The change — initially announced in October and set to take full effect in January 2026 — triggered the investigation after complaints from rival AI developers.
Sources: The Verge, TechCrunch
Key Takeaways
– The EU’s probe centers on whether Meta’s policy violates competition law by giving its own AI chatbot exclusive access to WhatsApp while barring rivals.
– The policy change affects general-purpose AI chatbots but still allows businesses using AI for customer support; the distinction raises questions about the true motivations behind the block.
– If Meta is found in breach of EU antitrust rules, it could face heavy fines (up to 10% of global annual revenue) and be forced to roll back or revise its policy.
In-Depth
The European Commission has taken a bold step — opening a formal antitrust investigation into Meta over its updated rules for WhatsApp that effectively shut out third-party AI chatbot providers while preserving full access for Meta’s own AI assistant. The concern is straightforward: in barring competitors such as ChatGPT or Perplexity from distributing through WhatsApp’s Business API, Meta is using its massive user base to entrench its own AI as the default — and only — option for users who want to access an assistant through the messaging service.
Meta rolled out this policy change in October 2025 and set the new terms to take full effect by January 2026. The company justified the move on the grounds that WhatsApp’s Business API was designed for business messaging — customer support, notifications, transactional communications — not for the distribution of general-purpose AI chatbots. In Meta’s explanation, third-party AI use cases place undue strain on its infrastructure, and the update simply realigns the platform to its intended use.
But critics — and now regulators — aren’t buying it. The European Commission says there’s a real risk the policy amounts to a classic act of self-preferencing: Meta favoring its own AI over others, leveraging its dominant market position to shut out rivals. Under EU competition law (especially provisions addressing abuse of dominance), such behavior may be illegal if it unfairly restricts competition and harms innovation.
What’s especially noteworthy is the narrow carve-out Meta made: the ban targets only “general-purpose AI assistants” whose primary offering is AI-based chat — not AI used as an ancillary tool by businesses for customer service or other functions. This suggests Meta didn’t intend to ban all AI, but rather to reserve the “AI assistant” slot exclusively for itself. That design choice is precisely what alarms regulators, because it suggests the policy is less about protecting infrastructure and more about locking in control over AI access on WhatsApp.
If the investigation finds Meta in violation, the results could be serious. The company faces a fine of up to 10% of its global revenue — not a trivial amount. But more consequential may be the precedent it sets: forcing Meta to open WhatsApp’s platform back up to rival AI services. That, in turn, could re-energize competition in the AI ecosystem, enabling smaller and independent AI developers to connect to billions of WhatsApp users.
Meanwhile, this investigation underscores a broader trend: regulators globally are beginning to scrutinize the tactics of Big Tech as they wrap generative AI tightly into established platforms. What happens with Meta may influence future rulings on other platforms that aim to “own” AI within walled gardens.
For users and developers alike, the outcome has real stakes: either Meta’s vision — a closed, unified AI ecosystem under its control — gets enforced, or Europe reaffirms that even powerful platforms must keep gateways open to competition and innovation.