The European Commission has ordered Meta to restore access for rival AI chatbots to the WhatsApp for Business API within five working days, escalating its antitrust investigation into the tech giant’s decision to block third-party AI assistants from the platform.

The EU warned that failure to comply could trigger fines of up to 10% of Meta’s total global turnover.

The Commission launched its investigation in December 2025 after Meta banned third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the WhatsApp for Business API, restricting the platform exclusively to Meta AI. Regulators concluded that this appeared to constitute an abuse of Meta’s dominant position in European messaging markets. The interim order restores access under the same terms and conditions that applied before Meta introduced the ban.

Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition, framed the intervention as urgently necessary.

“In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted,” she said. “This is why these interim measures will remain in place for the duration of the investigation.”

She added the decision preserved Europeans’ right to choose which AI assistants they use with WhatsApp, rather than having that choice made for them by Meta.

A separate but connected study from IMDEA Networks Institute in May found that ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity all share user data with third-party trackers including Meta, Google, and TikTok, even when users opt out.

Meta reacted with open hostility, calling the decision regulatory overreach and announcing it will appeal. The company argued that the Commission’s ruling effectively forces it to give some of the world’s largest AI companies, including OpenAI, free access to a paid commercial product.

“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,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email to the media.
“This is regulatory overreach subsidised by the many European companies that pay. We will appeal.”

The confrontation is the latest in a sustained pattern of friction between EU regulators and US technology companies. Meta has previously warned European users of degraded experiences due to EU regulations, and the Trump administration has accused European authorities of unfairly targeting American tech firms in what it describes as a coordinated economic challenge.