Rome (AFP) – Italian regulators ordered Meta on Wednesday to open its WhatsApp chat platform to rival AI chatbots as it and EU authorities pursue a probe that the US tech giant is abusing its dominant market position. Meta has integrated Meta AI across the company’s platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, that serve billions of users globally.
In October, Meta introduced new contractual conditions that will apply from January 15, which Italy’s competition regulator said “completely exclude Meta AI’s competitors from the WhatsApp platform in the AI Chatbot services market.” Earlier this month, the European Commission opened an antitrust probe to determine if the way Meta is rolling out AI features in WhatsApp breaches the bloc’s competition rules. Meta AI is a generative AI chatbot that can interact with users. Such AI chatbots provide a new way for users to search for and obtain information and services, thus potentially supplanting browsers.
Locking WhatsApp’s more than three billion users into Meta AI could give the company a commercial advantage over rival AI chatbots. Italy’s competition regulator, which opened its probe in July, stated that following a review of briefs submitted as part of the investigation, “Meta’s conduct appears to constitute an abuse, since it may limit production, market access or technical developments in the AI Chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers.” It issued an interim order for Meta to suspend the terms and allow rival AI chatbots to use WhatsApp while its investigation continues.
The interim order is deemed necessary as “Meta’s conduct may cause serious and irreparable harm to competition in the affected market,” the regulator added. The Italian authority indicated it would coordinate with the European Commission “to ensure that Meta’s conduct is addressed in the most effective manner.” When the EU antitrust probe was announced earlier this month, WhatsApp pushed back against the claims that its new terms hindered competition as “baseless.”
Meta already faces the risk of heavy fines under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which regulates content. One DSA case accuses Meta of failing to grant researchers sufficient access to public data, while another focuses on accusations that Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram do not provide user-friendly ways to flag illegal content or challenge content-moderation decisions. EU regulators are also investigating Facebook and Instagram over concerns that they are not doing enough to combat the addictive nature of their platforms for children.
Meta has separately appealed against a 200-million-euro fine imposed this year under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act competition law over its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service.
© 2024 AFP
