European Union regulators have ordered Meta to provide rival artificial intelligence services with free access to WhatsApp’s business platform while an ongoing antitrust investigation continues.
The interim order follows complaints from several AI companies, including Poke.com developer The Interaction Company of California, French startup Agentik and a Spanish competitor, which accused Meta of unfairly restricting access to WhatsApp’s business application programming interface (API).
The European Commission began investigating the matter in December and later accused Meta of violating competition rules. Regulators argued that Meta’s access fees were too high for competitors and potentially allowed the company to favour its own Meta AI assistant.
EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said regulators were concerned that Meta could leverage WhatsApp’s market position to strengthen its AI offerings while excluding rivals.
Under the order, Meta must restore access to WhatsApp Business APIs under the same terms that existed before October, when the company restricted access for competing AI services. The measure will remain in force until the investigation concludes or until June 2029.
Meta criticised the decision, describing it as regulatory overreach and confirming plans to appeal. The company argued that competitors already have multiple channels through which they can distribute AI services.
If found guilty of violating EU antitrust rules, Meta could face fines of up to 10 per cent of its global annual revenue.
