Meta breached EU antitrust rules over AI assistants in WhatsApp

The European Commission has notified Meta that the company breached the bloc’s antitrust rules by excluding third-party artificial intelligence (AI) assistants from its messaging app, WhatsApp.

Exclusion of third-party AI assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp risks “blocking competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI assistants,” according to the Commission's preliminary view.

The Commission intends to impose interim measures to prevent Meta’s policy from “causing serious and irreparable harm on the market.”

Meta announced an update of its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms in October 2025, banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the application.

As a result, Meta’s own tool, Meta AI, has been the only AI assistant available on WhatsApp since 15th January 2026.

Meta may be abusing its “dominant position”

The Commission says it has informed Meta that this policy change appears to be in breach of the European Union competition rules.

The Commission preliminarily concluded that Meta is likely to be dominant in the European Economic Area market for consumer communication applications, notably through WhatsApp.

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By refusing to allow other businesses, including third-party AI assistants, access to WhatsApp, Meta is likely abusing its dominant position.

The warning comes amid tense relations between the bloc and US technology companies, which have accused European regulators of what they call “discrimination” and unfair targeting.

In 2025, the Commission slapped Meta with a €200 million ($237 million) fine for breaching the Digital Markets Act, which requires companies to give consumers the choice of using services that rely on less personal data.

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