EU orders Meta to allow free WhatsApp access for rival AI chatbots

EU antitrust regulators ordered Meta Platforms to allow free WhatsApp access to rival AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The European Commission's decision to issue an interim measure against Meta followed complaints from The Interaction Company of California, developer of the Poke.com AI assistant; French AI startup Agentik; and a Spanish rival.

The complaints prompted the EU's competition enforcer to open an investigation in December, which issued charges against Meta two months later, alleging breaches of EU antitrust rules, and additional charges in April after Meta levied access fees.

EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said Meta's fees were so high that they were not economically sustainable for competitors, and the company's justification failed to convince.

"It seems that Meta expects to leverage the vast reach and likely dominance of WhatsApp to benefit its own AI assistant and to foreclose rivals," she told a press conference.

Ribera said, "It is now a critical time. AI ​markets are developing exceptionally fast, and AI systems are expected to become an important way for consumers all across Europe ‌to access ⁠and use AI."

Meta, which has previously pointed to AI options available via app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships, criticized the Commission order.

"The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free," a Meta spokesperson said in an email.

"This is regulatory overreach subsidized by the many European companies that pay. We will appeal."

Meanwhile, EU antitrust regulators said they will continue to investigate whether the company abused its market power by blocking competitors from the messaging app.

Meta barred rival AI services from accessing its WhatsApp for Business application programming interface, which allows companies to connect their systems to WhatsApp, in October.

While exempting its own assistant, Meta AI, the Mark Zuckerberg-founded platform allowed the competitors back onto the platform for a fee, a move that drew the commission's objection.