A few weeks after notifying WhatsApp that it had to give third-party artificial intelligence assistants access to its app (see EUROPE 13766/5), the European Commission announced on Monday 9 February that it was taking interim measures against it to “prevent this policy change from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market”.
The Commission believes that Meta, the app’s parent company, is hindering free competition in the field of artificial intelligence by prohibiting companies whose main product is AI from using the ‘WhatsApp Business Solution’ tool.
“Because of this policy, competing AI assistants could be prevented from reaching their customers via WhatsApp. However, Meta’s AI service, ‘Meta AI’, would remain accessible to the platform’s users”, explains the institution. In its view, Meta is “likely to be dominant in the [...] market“.
“There is an urgent need for protective measures due to the risk of serious and irreparable damage to competition. Meta’s conduct risks raising barriers to entry and expansion, and irreparably marginalising smaller competitors on the market for general-purpose AI assistants”, explains the European Commission in a press release.
To remedy this, the Commission sent a statement of objections to Meta, informing it of its intention to impose interim measures that would ensure access to WhatsApp for competing AI assistants.
The company has already stated that these accusations are “unfounded” and that these internal policy choices were linked to technical constraints. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)