As part of its ongoing antitrust investigation, the European Committee has issued a formal order to Meta to provide free access to the WhatsApp Business API for competing artificial intelligence assistants. The policy change, which came into force in October 2025 and excluded anyone other than Meta’s own artificial intelligence assistant from the platform, caused significant competition concerns in the European Union.

With this decision, the way is opened for giants such as OpenAI and Microsoft Copilot to reorganize their activities on WhatsApp, while Meta must offer this access free of charge within five business days. The European Committee has implemented such harsh intermediate measures for the first time in the last 17 years in order to prevent irreversible damage caused by rapid changes in the technology world.

This decision taken by the European Commission is considered as the strongest response against Meta’s attempts to monopolize its market power in the field of artificial intelligence.

Meta Blocks Rival Artificial Intelligence Assistants

Meta changed the WhatsApp Business analysis conditions with the policy updates it made in the last quarter of 2025. This change restricted third-party software’s access to the WhatsApp infrastructure, making Meta AI the only option. Technology giants such as OpenAI and Microsoft had to stop their services on WhatsApp due to these restrictions. In particular, OpenAI had to withdraw from this platform, which had more than 50 million users, and direct its users to its own applications.

European Board Launches Formal Antitrust Investigation

With the Statement of Objections published in February 2026, the European Committee submitted its preliminary report stating that Meta had violated competition rules. The priced access model that Meta introduced later was also described by the committee as a barrier to fair competition.
This situation caused an additional statement of objection to be published in April and the process to become even harsher.

As a result of the investigation, Meta may face heavy fines of up to 10 percent of its global annual turnover.

Meta Announced That It Will Object the Decision

The Meta administration sees the European Commission’s decision as an unjustified intervention. The company argues that forcing the WhatsApp Business API, which is a priced service, to be offered free of charge to large technology companies will disrupt commercial stability. The fact that other European businesses continue to pay for this service is the main reason why Meta finds this decision unfair.

New Regulations Are Expected in the Future

The interim measures will remain in force until the antitrust investigation conducted by the European Commission is completed. This process will determine not only the future of WhatsApp, but also how the artificial intelligence ecosystem in Europe will be shaped. Although users do not feel a direct change for now, the variety of artificial intelligence services offered on the platform may increase in the coming days.

What do you think about Meta’s AI restrictions on WhatsApp? Do you think this mandatory access will actually increase competition or will it lead to a new corporate crisis among technology giants? Share your opinions with us in the comment section below.