Meta is facing fresh pressure from European regulators over how it is adding artificial intelligence to WhatsApp. EU competition authorities have warned the company that its recent policy changes may be unlawfully shutting rival AI chatbots out of one of the world’s largest messaging platforms, while Meta’s own assistant, Meta AI, gets prime placement inside the app. With WhatsApp used by hundreds of millions of people across Europe, regulators argue that the social media behemoth may be using its power in messaging to control which AI tools can reach users. Most important, the regulators also signaled that they are prepared to step in with interim measures if needed, aiming to prevent the policy change from causing serious and potentially irreparable harm to competition in the fast-emerging market for AI assistants.
The warning comes as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation by the European Commission, which is examining whether Meta’s conduct amounts to an abuse of a dominant market position under EU competition law. At the core of the dispute is Meta’s control over access to WhatsApp’s infrastructure, particularly the WhatsApp Business API, which enables automated services and bots to communicate with users at scale. European regulators say Meta has recently tightened the rules governing this API in a way that effectively shuts out third-party general-purpose AI assistants, even as the company moves ahead with embedding its own AI features directly into WhatsApp.
Notably, WhatsApp’s scale (used by around 85% of smartphone owners in the region) has always made it a strategically sensitive platform, and regulators argue that embedding Meta AI at the core of the app effectively funnels users toward Meta’s own technology by default. This concern has grown stronger since the Mark Zuckerberg-led company updated WhatsApp’s developer policy in October 2025, blocking AI-focused companies from using WhatsApp’s business-communication APIs, which traditionally enabled external chatbots and enterprise AI tools to interact with customers on the platform.
The policy change hit new AI developers immediately, while existing developers were given until January 15, 2026, before the restrictions applied to them. That window effectively granted Meta AI uninterrupted dominance inside WhatsApp at a moment when others were gearing up to enter the European market.
Meanwhile, the social media giant has rejected the accusation that it is blocking competition. The company says the WhatsApp Business API was designed for specific use cases like customer support and transactional messaging, not as an open platform for general AI assistants. Meta also argues that developers have many alternative ways to distribute AI tools, including standalone apps, web interfaces, operating system integrations, and partnerships with other platforms.
However, European regulators are not convinced that these justifications fully address the competitive risks. If the Commission ultimately concludes that Meta has violated competition law, the penalties could be substantial. EU rules allow fines of up to 10% of a company’s global annual turnover, which for Meta could run into billions of euros.
This is not Meta’s first clash with European regulators over AI integration. Italy’s competition authority opened a separate investigation in July 2025, raising early concerns that the social media giant might be conditioning WhatsApp use on exposure to Meta AI and that its control over the platform could discourage users from trying third-party assistants.
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