The EU ordered Meta to open the doors to AI assistants from other companies on WhatsApp

“We are asking Meta to provide access to WhatsApp for competing AI assistants while we investigate whether the imposed restrictions are contrary to EU competition rules,” said Executive Vice President of the Commission for Fair, Fair and Competitive Transition Teresa Ribera.

This temporary measure was adopted to prevent serious and irreparable damage to market competition in the growing artificial intelligence market. The commission has preliminarily established that Meta is abusing its dominant position by preventing competing AI assistants from using the WhatsApp for Business Application Programming Interface (API). In October of last year, Meta banned third-party AI assistants from accessing the WhatsApp for Business application, and users could only use Meta’s AI assistant. After the Commission’s warning, Meta changed its approach in March of this year and enabled third-party AI assistants, but introduced a charge for their use, which practically has a similar effect as the earlier ban. The Commission states that Meta must implement its order within five working days and adhere to it until the antitrust investigation is completed.

If in the end it is established that Meta has violated the EU law on market competition, the Commission can impose a financial penalty on it. The fine may not exceed 10 percent of the total turnover in the business year preceding the offense.