The European Commission opens a new antitrust investigation into Meta over its rollout of its AI assistant in WhatsApp; the probe will not fall under the DMA
Brussels concerned that US tech group's business terms may prevent competition from third-party AI providers
Context & Ripple Effects
The Commission’s move follows Italy’s earlier probe into Meta’s WhatsApp AI integration and its subsequent scrutiny of a policy excluding rival chatbots. It shifts the issue from national examination to an EU-level test of the terms governing AI access inside a major messaging service.
Later coverage shows the case escalating from objections over WhatsApp’s treatment of rival AI chatbots to an order requiring access. This opening probe is the point at which those competition concerns became a formal Commission case.
First-order effects
- Meta’s WhatsApp AI business terms face EU antitrust scrutiny, while third-party AI providers gain a formal route to challenge whether those terms restrict their ability to compete.
- Because the case is outside the DMA, the Commission will assess the alleged conduct through its separate competition-enforcement process rather than the DMA’s gatekeeper obligations.
Second-order effects
- Rival AI chatbot providers and Meta must prepare for a dispute over access to WhatsApp’s distribution channel, raising the importance of contractual and technical conditions for reaching users.
- The investigation increases pressure on platform operators that embed their own assistants in established services to distinguish product integration from exclusionary treatment of rivals.
Third-order effects
- If enforcement establishes that messaging distribution cannot be reserved for a platform’s own assistant, AI competition policy could increasingly focus on access to user-facing platforms rather than only on model capabilities.
- The case suggests a developing split in EU AI oversight: some platform-AI disputes may be pursued through conventional antitrust tools even where DMA rules are also relevant.
The trend: AI distribution advantage is becoming a competition-policy battleground as platforms place proprietary assistants inside services that rivals need to reach users.