EU hits Meta with antitrust probe over plans to block AI rivals from WhatsApp

By Foo Yun Chee, Mrinmay Dey and Rishabh Jaiswal

BRUSSELS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday and may even temporarily halt its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe's already tough stance on Big Tech.

The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet's Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.

Europe's tough stance - a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation - has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta's new policy that would limit other AI providers' access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.

EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from "abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors". She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta's new WhatsApp AI policy rollout.

"AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond," she said.

"This is why we are investigating if Meta's new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space."

A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims "baseless", adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a "strain on our systems that they were not designed to support", a reference to AI systems from other providers.

"Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems."

The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.

META AI VS RIVAL AI CHATBOTS

Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp's interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform.

Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy.

The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. 

Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, "millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants".

Spanish AI startup Luzia, which says it has more than 85 million users globally, has also complained to the EU antitrust enforcer.

"In recent months, we have invested heavily in growing our app and web version, but WhatsApp remains a key channel for discovery and access," Pablo Delgado, Luzia's head of brands and communications, said.

"If this policy remains in place, that gateway will close for millions of users and many businesses that depend on it," he said.

Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.

Italy's antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform.

The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU's Digital Markets Act, the bloc's landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon's and Microsoft's cloud services for potential curbs.

(Reporting by Foo Yun-Chee, Mrinmay Dey, Rishabh Jaiswal and Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru, and Jesus Calero in Madrid; writing by Adam Jourdan. Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter)