The threatened order marks an escalation in European regulators’ push to open major consumer messaging platforms to AI competition, setting up a direct confrontation with Meta over whether charging rivals for access constitutes an abuse of its dominant market position.
The European Commission on Wednesday threatened to order Meta Platforms to restore free access to WhatsApp for competing artificial intelligence chatbot providers, saying Meta’s decision to charge rivals for the access amounted to the same anticompetitive barrier regulators had set out to remove.
Meta had attempted to resolve the commission’s antitrust investigation of WhatsApp by beginning to charge third-party AI companies for access to the platform in March. Regulators said that approach was unsatisfactory.
“Replacing the legal ban with pricing that has a similar effect does not change our preliminary view that Meta’s conduct appears to be an abuse of its dominant position, that may seriously harm competition on the market for AI assistants,” Teresa Ribera, the commission’s executive vice president overseeing competition, said in a statement.
Background
The commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, opened its investigation in December over concerns that WhatsApp was blocking competing AI companies from offering their assistants on the platform. Officials said they were scrutinizing new terms and conditions that blocked providers of AI chatbots from using a tool to communicate with customers.
The bloc said it intends to issue a formal order requiring Meta to reinstate access for third-party AI chatbots under the previous terms while the investigation continues to a final decision.
Meta’s response
Meta pushed back against the threatened order, saying the commission’s position would require the company to provide its service for free and would amount to subsidizing select competitors rather than enabling more competition.
“A small bakery in France paying to use the service to take croissant orders will be picking up the tab for OpenAI,” Meta said in a statement, referring to one of its AI competitors. “Small European businesses shouldn’t foot OpenAI’s bill.”