The European Commission wants to stop WhatsApp causing ’serious and irreparable harm to the market’ for AI assistants. The body says the policy breaks EU rules and it intends to impose interim measures to stop it, which effectively means that the system would have to undergo a technical redesign.
Last October Meta—the owner of WhatsApp—changed the policy of its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, effectively banning third-party AI assistants. The policy came into effect in January meaning that users have little choice but to use Meta AI if they want a general purpose AI chatbot assistant.
Policy breaking EU rules
Because Meta is so dominant in the communications application space—specifically through WhatsApp—the Commission considers that it is an important entry point to enable general-purpose AI assistants to reach consumers. By blocking alternatives the tech giant could seriously hamper start-ups and scale-ups from entering the market.
Meta’s conduct risks raising barriers to entry and expansion, and irreparably marginalising smaller competitors. – European Commission
On Monday, 9 February Commission said the policy breaks EU rules and it intends to impose interim measures to stop it. That would mean WhatsApp’s Business Application Programming Interface (API) would have to undergo a technical redesign. Describing the situation as ’urgent’, Commission said: “Meta’s conduct risks raising barriers to entry and expansion, and irreparably marginalising smaller competitors.”
WhatsApp’s Business API is primarily a tool for businesses who want to communicate with customers and Meta argued that “there is no reason for the EU to intervene” as it “wrongly assumes that the WhatsApp Business API is an essential distribution channel for these chatbots.”
Meta can now reply to the Commission’s concerns, examine the documents in the investigation file, reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present their views on the case before the Commission and national competition authorities.
You might be interested
Competition must be protected: Ribera
Last month the Commission designated WhatsApp as a “Very Large Online Platform” under the Digital Services Act (DSA). That is separate to this case, but casts light on how the service is viewed. The Commission’s formal proceedings were also opened after the Italian antitrust authority’s investigation found wrongdoing and ordered Meta to drop the practices in December. However Meta pointed out that a similar case in Brazil was dismissed.
We can not allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage. – Teresa Ribera, Commission Executive Vice-President for Competition
The Commission Executive Vice-President for Competition, Teresa Ribera, said: “Artificial intelligence is bringing incredible innovations to consumers, and one of these is the emerging market of AI assistants. We must protect effective competition, which means we can not allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage. AI markets are developing at a rapid pace, so we also need to be swift in our action.”
With Tiktok also in hot water over likely breaches of the DSA, the Commission is once again signalling its appetite to take on global Big Tech. However Ms Ribera told Bloomberg that the decision is a competition one and not politically motivated—no doubt in an effort to head off the inevitable accusations from the U.S. Trump administration that the EU is unfairly targeting American tech giants.
Meanwhile on Tuesday the European Court of Justice is expected to rule in a long-running saga over WhatsApp’s infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is a convoluted tale of appeal and counter appeal over measures imposed in 2021 and a €225m fine for the messaging app.
