Meta has five business day to give artificial intelligence assistants free access to WhatsApp. According to a preliminary European Commission finding, the company may have used its control of the app to strenghten its own AI — and weaken others.
“We require Meta to restore access to WhatsApp for competing AI assistants while we investigate whether the restrictions may infringe EU competition rules”, said Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, on Tuesday.
The measure is temporary and will remain in place until the investigation is over.
The case concerns the WhatsApp Business API, which allows companies to connect their own services to WhatsApp. Before October 2025, third-party AI companies could make their assistants available through the app. WhatsApp users were able to message rival assistants, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, without leaving the app. Meta then changed its rules and blocked third-party general-purpose AI assistants from using the system. This left Meta AI as the only general-purpose AI assistant available through WhatsApp.
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Meta AI has advantage
According to the Commission’s preliminary findings, Meta may have used its control of WhatsApp to strengthen Meta AI and weaken competing services. Meta first banned rival AI assistants from the WhatsApp Business API. In March 2026, the company changed its policy and allowed them to return, but only if they paid a fee. For Brussels, the fee had practically the same effect as the ban as the elevated price made access commercially unviable for competitors.
Meta must now restore the conditions that existed before 15 October 2025, when access was free. “In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted. This is why these interim measures will remain in place for the duration of the investigation, in order to prevent harm that would be almost impossible to repair”, Ribera said.
However, this remains only a preliminary finding. The Commission has not yet made a final decision on whether Meta broke EU competition law.
The investigation began in 2025
The Commission opened its formal antitrust investigation on 4 December 2025. This February, Brussels outlined its preliminary concerns that Meta excluding rival AI assistants from WhatsApp could prevent smaller competitors from entering or expanding in the growing AI assistant market.
As a response, Meta reversed the ban but introduced a fee for third-party AI assistants, but the Commission considered that the new pricing system still excluded competitors in practice. Therefore, Brussels ordered the company to restore the conditions that existed before the October 2025 policy change.
What Meta must do
Meta has five working days to allow third-party general-purpose AI assistants to use the WhatsApp Business API under the same terms as before 15 October 2025. In practice, that means that access must be allowed free of charge. “These interim measures will safeguard competition in the growing market for AI assistants, by preserving a key entry point to reach consumers in Europe – WhatsApp – and allowing AI companies to innovate, scale up and reach their full potential,” Ribera said.
The order will stay in force until the Commission finishes its antitrust investigation and adopts a final decision. Currently, no deadline has been set.
If Meta fails to follow the order, the Commission can impose a fine of up to 10 per cent of the company’s total turnover in the business year before the infringement. Brussels can also impose daily penalty payments of up to 5 per cent of Meta’s average daily turnover until the company complies.
