Regulators in Europe have started a formal antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms that could change the way artificial intelligence features work on WhatsApp. The investigation centers on fears that Meta may be leveraging its dominant messaging service to quash competition in AI services while promoting its own AI assistant, Meta AI.
The European Commission said Thursday it’s investigating whether Meta’s new WhatsApp policy unduly prevents other AI providers from reaching users on the platform. The investigation will look at Meta’s policy changes that could restrict rival AI providers access to WhatsApp, thereby giving an advantage to Meta’s own AI system that was integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera didn’t mince words about the investigation’s purpose. She emphasized the need to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. What makes this probe particularly serious is the possibility of interim measures-essentially a temporary halt to Meta’s planned policy rollout while regulators dig deeper.
Ribera explained that AI markets are growing fast in Europe and beyond, adding that the authorities are investigating whether Meta’s new policy constitutes a violation of competition rules and whether quick action is required to prevent irreparable harm to competition in the AI sector.
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Meta is not taking these claims lying down. A WhatsApp spokesperson pushed back hard against the claims, calling them baseless. The company said that the chatbots emerging on its platform strain systems that weren’t originally designed to support such features, which was a reference to third-party AI services operating on WhatsApp.
The company also defended the competitive landscape, pointing out that AI services are discoverable by consumers through such means as app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.
At the center of the argument is Meta AI, which is the company’s chatbot and virtual assistant. This AI tool was integrated into the interface of WhatsApp in European markets since March. But it’s what’s coming next that raises concern from smaller AI companies. A new policy set to take full effect on January 15, 2026, may effectively block competing AI providers from reaching customers through the platform.
The investigation didn’t come out of nowhere. Ribera disclosed that the investigation had been opened following complaints received from small AI developers over WhatsApp’s policy. One of the complainants is The Interaction Company of California, which developed the AI assistant Poke.com.
Marvin von Hagen, its co-founder and chief executive officer, painted a stark picture of what’s at stake. He warned that if Meta proceeds with the new policy, millions of European consumers will lose access to new and innovative AI assistants.
Spanish AI startup Luzia has also expressed its concerns to the EU regulators. The firm, claiming more than 85 million users worldwide, names WhatsApp as key to its growth strategy.
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Pablo Delgado, Luzia’s head of brands and communications, described how the company has invested heavily in developing its own app and web presence, but WhatsApp remains a vital channel for discovery and user access. He warned that the policy would shut down this gateway for millions of users and businesses reliant on it.
The stakes for Meta are considerable: the company can be fined up to 10% of its annual global turnover if the regulators decide that the firm infringed EU antitrust rules.
This isn’t the only regulatory headache Meta is facing in Europe. Italy’s antitrust watchdog launched its own parallel investigation in July, investigating whether Meta abused its market dominance by integrating AI into WhatsApp, and last month expanded its probe to see if the company had abused its dominant position by blocking rival AI chatbots.
The investigation represents the latest chapter in Europe’s increasingly assertive approach to regulating Big Tech. The move is part of broader EU efforts against large technology firms including Amazon and Alphabet’s Google, as the bloc attempts to balance support for the tech sector with efforts to limit its growing influence.
With AI technology rapidly developing, this may set a critical precedent for how dominant platforms handle competing AI services and whether gatekeepers of digital communication can also manage the AI assistants operating within them.
