Overview
- The European Commission has ordered Meta to reinstate free access for third-party AI chatbots to WhatsApp and to apply the change within five business days, keeping those conditions in place until the investigation finishes.
- Regulators opened a formal probe after Meta barred outside assistants from WhatsApp in October 2025, and they say Meta’s March 2026 decision to let them return only for a fee effectively kept rivals off the platform.
- Brussels argues Meta used its dominant position to prioritise Meta AI, creating a risk of serious and irreparable harm to competition that would particularly hurt smaller and new AI entrants.
- Popular external assistants previously integrated via the WhatsApp Business API included ChatGPT, Perplexity, Luzia and Carina, and restoring free access would let those services reconnect to users through the messaging app.
- The Commission’s order is an interim remedy while the formal abuse-of-dominance inquiry continues and could shape whether platform owners may charge or restrict access to services that rely on major messaging networks.