The European Commission has ordered Meta to restore free access to WhatsApp for rival general-purpose AI assistants while it investigates whether the restrictions may infringe EU competition rules.
The Commission says this will prevent ‘serious and irreparable harm’ to competition in this growing market by Meta’s conduct, which it says at first sight infringes EU competition rules.
“In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted”, said EC executive vice-president Teresa Ribera: “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.” She said the interim measures would “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.”
The EU executive opened in December 2025 an antitrust investigation into Meta’s new policy to block access for AI providers, other than Meta AI, to WhatsApp. In February 2026, the Commission issued a Statement of Objections where it preliminarily concluded that interim measures may be required to prevent Meta’s policy change from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market. In April 2026, the Commission issued a supplementary Statement of Objections, setting out its intention to order Meta to reinstate third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp.
Today’s decision concludes that interim measures are warranted to prevent serious and irreparable damage to competition in the growing market for general-purpose AI assistants. The Commission says its conclusion is based on the following findings:
- With WhatsApp, Meta has at first sight held a dominant position in the EEA-wide market for consumer communication applications since at least January 2023.
- Meta has been, at first sight, abusing this dominant position by preventing competing general-purpose AI assistants from using the WhatsApp for Business Application Programming Interface (‘API’). On 15 October 2025 Meta introduced a new policy, banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the WhatsApp for Business API. As a result, only Meta’s own AI assistant, Meta AI, remained accessible on WhatsApp. The Commission concluded that, at first sight, this constituted a refusal to provide access to an infrastructure developed for and previously open to third parties. After a revision of the policy, on 4 March 2026, Meta accepted third-party general-purpose AI assistants again on WhatsApp, but charged a fee which, at first sight, is in practice equivalent to the previous access ban.
- There is an urgent need to prevent a risk of serious damage to the competitive structure in the growing market for general-purpose AI assistants. Meta’s policy change risks harming competition at a key moment in time for the development of that market, where smaller player and new entrants can challenge large incumbents.
The Commission’s decision orders Meta to re-instate access for third-party general-purpose AI assistants to the WhatsApp for Business API under the same terms and conditions that were in place before 15 October 2025, when such access was notably free of charge for all such AI assistants. Meta has to maintain access on those terms and conditions until the Commission adopts a final decision on this case. This is necessary in order to ensure the effectiveness of the Commission’s competition law enforcement powers and of any final Commission decision on the legality of Meta’s conduct. Meta must comply with these measures within 5 working days.
The substantive investigation on the merits of all parts of the case is still ongoing.
Further information is available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under the case number AT.41034.
