Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – The EU ordered Meta on Tuesday to give rival AI chatbots access to its WhatsApp platform for free within five working days as it carries out an antitrust probe, or risk a heavy fine. Meta said it would appeal the order, which follows the launch in December of an EU investigation into the US firm’s policy of blocking access for AI providers other than Meta AI.
The European Commission, the EU’s digital watchdog, stated that Meta will have to maintain access to competitors until Brussels wraps up its probe. “Today, we require Meta to restore access to WhatsApp for competing AI assistants while we investigate whether the restrictions may infringe EU competition rules,” EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement. “This will prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition in this growing market by Meta’s conduct, which at first sight infringes EU competition rules,” the commission added.
A Meta spokesperson expressed that the measure would allow “OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world” access for free, adding, “This is regulatory overreach subsidised by the many European companies that pay.” The EU had previously warned Meta that it faced interim measures if it did not open WhatsApp to rival AI assistants in February. The company then introduced an access fee — a remedy the EU rejected in April as unsatisfactory.
Traditional antitrust probes can take years, and European officials believe the decisions, often fines, come too late to see any positive change to address the harm already done. The last time the EU used such interim measures was in 2019, Ribera noted. The EU’s goal is for Meta to reinstate third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp under the same conditions as before its October 2025 policy change, when it “effectively” barred them.
The commission stated it has the power to impose a fine of up to 10 percent of the company’s total turnover in the business year preceding the infringement if Meta “either intentionally or negligently” contravenes the decision on interim measures.
– Protecting a ‘growing market’ –
Brussels noted that the fee offered earlier this year was “at first sight” “in practice equivalent to the previous access ban.” The commission emphasized an “urgent need” to protect a “growing market for general-purpose AI assistants” and to allow space for smaller players and new entrants to challenge large incumbents.
“We cannot let large digital incumbents leverage their dominance of the past to dictate who in Europe gets to compete and who gets to innovate in AI,” Ribera told a press conference in Brussels. She asserted that the EU order would ensure EU citizens can choose which AI chatbots they prefer to use on WhatsApp.
There is no legal deadline for the EU’s investigation to conclude. The commission has had several confrontations with Meta as part of a broader clampdown on abusive Big Tech practices. In April, EU regulators determined Meta was failing to keep under-13s off its Facebook and Instagram platforms in violation of the bloc’s digital content rules.
As part of that same probe, EU regulators are investigating how Meta protects users’ physical and mental wellbeing, alongside the “addictive” design of Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, Meta has appealed a 200 million euro ($231 million) fine imposed last year by the EU under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA is not popular across the Atlantic, with neither the US administration under President Donald Trump nor the American giants themselves.
Apple criticized the law on Monday, attributing its delayed rollout of the AI-enhanced voice assistant Siri to the DMA, which the EU flatly rejected.
© 2024 AFP
