EU Orders Meta to Give Rival AI Assistants Free WhatsApp Access Within Five Days

Quick Facts

• Meta must restore rival AI assistant access to WhatsApp Business API within five working days or face fines up to 10% of global revenue
• Meta blocked competing chatbots from WhatsApp in October 2025, allowing only Meta AI to use the platform
• The interim measures will remain in place until June 2029 or until the EU investigation concludes

The European Commission ordered Meta to give rival AI chatbots free access to WhatsApp’s business messaging tools within five working days. The decision escalates an antitrust investigation that began in December 2025.

Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera announced the interim measures on Monday. Non-compliance could trigger fines up to 10% of Meta’s total global turnover.

“In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted,” Ribera said. “Today, we require Meta to restore access to WhatsApp for competing AI assistants while we investigate whether the restrictions may infringe EU competition rules.”

Meta changed its WhatsApp Business API policy in October 2025 to allow only Meta AI access to the platform. The company cut off existing AI providers and implemented the new rules for all users by January 15, 2026.

The policy change affected AI companies including OpenAI, Perplexity, Khosla Ventures-backed Luzia, and General Catalyst-backed Poke. OpenAI launched ChatGPT on WhatsApp last year, while Perplexity introduced its bot earlier this year to tap into WhatsApp’s 3 billion users.

Meta called the EU decision “regulatory overreach” and said it would appeal. “The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” the company said.

The WhatsApp Business API generates revenue through a pay-per-message model with different pricing tiers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted business messaging as a significant revenue opportunity during the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call.

The EU previously warned Meta about interim measures in February. Meta then introduced an access fee, which the commission rejected in April as “not economically sustainable for competitors.”

The investigation centers on whether Meta abused its dominant position in European messaging markets. The commission described an “urgent need” to protect the “growing market for general-purpose AI assistants.”

“We cannot let large digital incumbents leverage their dominance of the past to dictate who in Europe gets to compete and who gets to innovate in AI,” Ribera said.

The case represents the EU’s first use of interim measures since 2019. The measures will remain in place until the investigation concludes or until June 2029. Traditional antitrust investigations can take years, but European officials believe faster action prevents lasting market harm.

Read more: WhatsApp ordered to host rival AI assistants for free