Meta’s decision to serve only its AI chatbot, MetaAI, to WhatsApp users has not sat well with competition regulators in Europe. European Commission on Thursday said It is launching an antitrust investigation to ban Meta’s other AI companies from using WhatsApp’s business tools to offer their AI chatbots to users on the app.
In October, WhatsApp changed its business API policy to ban general-purpose chatbots from the chat app, saying the API was not designed to be a platform for distribution of chatbots. The policy change, which takes effect in January, will affect the availability of AI chatbots from the likes of Openai, Nuisance, and Poke on the app.
Notably, the move does not affect businesses that are using AI to serve customers on WhatsApp. For example, a retailer running an AI-powered customer service bot would not be restricted from using the API. Only AI chatbots such as ChatGPT are prohibited from being distributed via the API.
In its statement, the European Union’s executive arm said it was concerned that the policy “could prevent third-party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’).”
The commission wrote that “as a result of the new policy, competing AI providers may be prevented from reaching their customers through WhatsApp. On the other hand, Meta’s own AI service ‘Meta AI’ will remain accessible to users on the platform.”
Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice President for Clean, Fair and Competitive Transitions at the European Commission, said in a statement, “EI markets are moving beyond Europe and beyond. We need to ensure that European citizens and businesses can take full advantage of this technological revolution and prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors.”
“This is why we are investigating whether Meta’s new policy may be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any potential irreparable harm to competition in the AI space,” Ribera said.
If Meta is found guilty of violating EU antitrust rules, it could be fined up to 10% of its global annual revenue, and the commission could impose additional measures on the company.
WhatsApp, for its part, has called the EU’s claims “baseless” and said people have many other options to use chatbots from rival AI companies.
“The emergence of AI chatbots on our Business API puts a strain on our system that it was not designed to support,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services they want in multiple ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.”