EU Commission orders Meta: WhatsApp reopens to AI virtual assistants

All this despite the changes announced by Meta on 4 March 2026. This is a further step in the Commission’s provisional measures procedure, as part of the investigation into a potential abuse of a dominant position by Meta, through the limitation of third-party virtual assistants’ access to its WhatsApp messaging app.

Today’s move follows another statement of objections, sent on 9 February 2026, in which the Commission expressed its preliminary opinion that Meta would violated EU antitrust rules, barring third-party virtual assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp.

In today’s communication, the Commission assessed Meta’s decision to restore access to WhatsApp for third-party virtual assistants, but behind payment of a fee. The Commission has preliminarily established that this policy is de facto equivalent to the previous access ban. Meta’s conduct, according to the EU executive, “risks preventing competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI-based virtual assistants”.

Therefore, the Commission will impose provisional measures to prevent the policy changes from causing “serious and irreparable damage” to the market, without prejudice to Meta’s rights of defence. The provisional measures will remain in force until the Commission’s investigation is completed and a final decision on Meta’s conduct is reached.

With a separate decision, in collaboration with the Italian Competition Authority, the Commission has today extended its investigation to Italy too. Therefore, the Commission’s conclusions will now apply to the entire European Economic Area (EEA). Italy had previously been excluded from the Commission’s investigation, as the Italian Antitrust Authority had launched its own investigation into the matter.