The European Commission said that the move by Meta to keep third-party AI assistants off WhatsApp risked blocking competitors from entering the market. (Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto via AP)
The watchdog said it planned to exercise powers to prevent Meta from making changes to its policies on third-party AI products over concerns that the changes could cause "serious and irreparable harm on the market."
Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition at the European Commission, said that the watchdog "cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage."
She added that "AI markets are developing at a rapid pace, so we also need to be swift in our action. That is why we are considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta's new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe."
The commission launched an investigation into the decision by Meta to stop AI providers from using WhatsApp Business Solution. This allows businesses to communicate with customers via WhatsApp, when AI is the primary service they offer.
The probe was set up to determine if the policy change breached the competition rules of the EU that prohibit the abuse of a dominant position. The investigation covers the European Economic Area, except for Italy, to avoid overlap with an investigation by the national competition authority there.
The Italian Competition Authority launched a probe in July over concerns that Meta is bundling its dominant WhatsApp messaging service with its new Meta AI assistant by automatically pre-installing the service in the app. Enforcers said that this effectively forces more than 120 million European WhatsApp users into using Meta AI, potentially excluding AI competitors which lack the messaging app's distribution.
The European Commission has not concluded its investigation into Meta. But it issued the provisional view on Monday that the U.S. tech giant was in breach of antitrust rules. Meta has the chance to submit a reply before the commission enforces interim measures taken to preventing the Menlo Park business from implementing changes to its AI policy.
A Meta spokesperson told Law360 that it has previously been clear that AI chatbots have put a strain on WhatsApp because the app was not designed to support them.
"The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene in the WhatsApp Business API," they said. "There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission's logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots."
--Additional reporting by Matthew Perlman. Editing by Joe Millis.
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