Tech
Italy orders Meta to open WhatsApp to AI competitors
Italy orders Meta to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp amid regulatory battle over market dominance
Italy orders Meta to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp amid regulatory battle over market dominance
– Italy’s antitrust authority requires Meta to allow access to rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp during an investigation.
– Meta plans to appeal the ruling, claiming it disrupts their system and questioning WhatsApp’s role as an AI service platform.
Italy’s antitrust authority has ordered Meta to allow competing AI chatbots access to WhatsApp, suspending rules that blocked rivals. The decision comes amid concerns that Meta’s policies could limit competition and harm consumers in the rapidly growing AI services market. Meta plans to appeal, calling the ruling “fundamentally flawed” and arguing that WhatsApp wasn’t designed to support third-party AI chatbots.
The Italian Competition Authority began investigating Meta after its March 2025 launch of Meta AI on WhatsApp, later expanding the probe to cover updated business terms that excluded rival AI providers, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity. The European Commission has launched a parallel investigation, highlighting growing regulatory scrutiny on tech giants in Europe.
Europe’s stricter stance on Big Tech has sparked pushback from the industry and political figures in the U.S., including former President Donald Trump. Meta maintains that its Business API restrictions still allow AI for customer support and order tracking, but says general-purpose chatbot distribution falls outside its intended use.
