EU opens antitrust investigation into Meta’s WhatsApp AI access policy

The European Commission has formally launched an antitrust investigation into Meta. The company’s new policy on artificial intelligence providers’ access to WhatsApp may infringe EU competition rules.

In October 2025, Meta announced a change to its policy and terms for WhatsApp, prohibiting third parties from communicating with customers via WhatsApp. There’s one exception: businesses may still use AI tools for supplementary functions, such as automated customer support.

However, the European Commission is concerned that Meta’s new policy may prevent third-party AI providers from offering their services via WhatsApp in the European Economic Area (EEA), including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has over 50 million users on Meta’s messaging platform.

As a result of the new policy, competing AI providers may be blocked from reaching their customers through WhatsApp, making Meta AI the only remaining AI chatbot accessible to users on the platform.

If this is true, Meta may be breaching Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 54 of the European Economic Area Agreement.

“AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond. We must ensure European citizens and businesses can benefit fully from this technological revolution and act to prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors,” Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, says in a press release.

“This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space,” she adds.

In a response to Reuters, a WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims of the European Commission “baseless,” adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support.”

“Still, the AI space is highly competitive, and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems,” he continued.

Depending on the complexity of the case, antitrust investigations initiated by the European Commission can take years to complete. Therefore, the executive branch of the EU hasn't given a deadline on when it expects to publicly announce its conclusions.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.