The European Union announced on Thursday the launch of an antitrust investigation to determine whether Meta’s rollout of AI features in WhatsApp violates EU competition rules.
The probe, conducted under the bloc’s antitrust framework, comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Big Tech by EU authorities, despite pushback from the US government. The European Commission expressed concern that Meta’s policy “may prevent third-party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp.”
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said the investigation is necessary “to prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors.” She added, “We are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
The policy, announced in October, bars rival AI providers from using a tool in WhatsApp Business to reach customers directly when AI is the primary service, such as AI chatbots or assistants. Meta’s own AI services, however, remain accessible to users.
WhatsApp dismissed the EU’s concerns as “baseless,” arguing that the emergence of AI chatbots on their Business API strains systems not designed to support them. The company insisted that the AI sector remains competitive and users have multiple avenues to access AI services.
The EU investigation covers the European Economic Area, including the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, except Italy, which launched a separate investigation in July. The Italian antitrust body claims that merging Meta AI with WhatsApp may force users to adopt Meta’s AI services and funnel customers into the emerging market.
Meta faces additional scrutiny under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), including accusations of restricting researcher access to public data, failing to provide user-friendly content moderation tools, and concerns over the addictive nature of its platforms for children. The company has also appealed a €200 million DMA fine related to its ad-supported versus subscription service model.
There is currently no legal deadline for concluding the EU antitrust investigation.
