Meta is facing its toughest EU antitrust challenge yet. The European Commission just told the tech giant it plans to impose rare interim measures forcing it to reverse a controversial policy that kicked third-party AI assistants off WhatsApp. The move - revealed Monday - marks an escalation in Brussels' investigation into whether Meta violated competition rules by locking rivals out of its 2-billion-user messaging platform. It's a signal that regulators won't wait months for a full probe when AI market dominance is at stake.
Meta just got put on notice by Brussels, and the stakes couldn't be higher for the AI industry. The European Commission announced Monday it's preparing to impose interim measures - a rarely used enforcement tool - to stop the company from blocking third-party AI assistants on WhatsApp while its antitrust investigation unfolds.
The preliminary finding hits hard. EU regulators told Meta they believe the company "breached" competition rules when it updated WhatsApp Business Solution Terms last October, effectively banning general-purpose AI chatbots from the platform. That policy went live in January, and now the Commission wants it reversed immediately.
"AI markets are developing at rapid pace, so we also need to be swift in our action," Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said in a statement reported by CNBC. "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 interim measures would require Meta to maintain third-party AI assistants' access to WhatsApp under the old terms - before October's policy shift - according to a Commission spokesperson. It's a dramatic step that signals Brussels isn't willing to let AI competition get locked down while bureaucratic investigations drag on for years.
Meta isn't backing down. "There is no reason for the EU to intervene in the WhatsApp Business API," a company spokesperson told CNBC. The company argues there are plenty of AI options available through app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and partnerships. "The Commission's logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots," they added.
