The European Commission said it has sent a statement of objections to Meta Platforms (META), stating its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by excluding third-party AI assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp.
On Oct. 15, 2025, Meta announced an update of its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, effectively banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the application. Due to this, since Jan. 15, the only AI assistant available on WhatsApp is Meta’s own tool, Meta AI, while competitors have been excluded, the regulator noted.
The EU antitrust watchdog said that it has informed Meta that this policy change appears at first sight to be in breach of EU competition rules.
“The Commission therefore intends to impose interim measures to prevent this policy change from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market, subject to Meta’s reply and rights of defence,” said the regulator in a press release on Monday.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
“We must protect effective competition in this vibrant field, which means we cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. “That is why we are considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The Commission noted that it preliminarily concludes that Meta is likely to be dominant in the European Economic Area, or EEA, market for consumer communication applications, notably via WhatsApp.
The regulator tentatively also concluded that Meta is likely to be abusing this dominant position by refusing access to WhatsApp to other businesses, including third-party AI assistants. At this stage, the Commission considers that WhatsApp is an important entry point to enable general-purpose AI assistants reach consumers.
In addition, the Commission concluded that there is an urgent need for protective measures due to the risk of serious and irreparable damage to competition. Meta’s conduct risks raising barriers to entry and expansion and irreparably marginalizing smaller competitors in the market for general-purpose AI assistants, the regulator added.
The statement of objections covers the EEA except for Italy, where the Italian Competition Authority imposed interim measures on Meta in December 2025.
The Commission noted that sending the statement of objections on interim measures does not prejudge the outcome of the probe. Meta now has the option to reply to the Commission’s concerns.