BRUSSELS  –  The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules. The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January. Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.” The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections”, a formal step in antitrust probes. Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.  The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.  “The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.  “There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said. 

Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.