Meta Hit by EU Antitrust Probe Over WhatsApp’s AI Tools

(Bloomberg) — Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has been hit by a full-scale European Union antitrust investigation over how its AI features in WhatsApp may be harming competition, in the latest probe into Big Tech’s dominance on the continent.

The European Commission said it’s concerned that new policies implemented by Meta for its WhatsApp AI tools may prevent rival AI providers from offering their business services through WhatsApp in Europe.

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Eventual fines for breaching the bloc’s antitrust rulebook can be as high as 10% of global annual revenue, although they rarely reach that level, especially if alleged wrongdoing is short-lived. Meta will now be forced to submit solutions to appease regulators’ concerns.

“We must ensure European citizens and businesses can benefit fully of this technological revolution and act to prevent dominant digital incumbents from abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors,” Teresa Ribera, the EU’s antitrust commissioner, said in a statement on Thursday.

The EU has in recent years ramped up pressure on Silicon Valley firms, seeking to curb potential market abuses as a handful of operators wield a huge amount of power across the digital sector. Aside from standard antitrust rules, legislation — in the shape of the Digital Markets Act — has established a series of dos and don’ts for the major players in order to curb anti-competitive behavior.

“The claims are baseless,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. “The emergence of AI chatbots on our Business API puts a strain on our systems that they were not designed to support. Even still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.”

Last month, Italian regulators broadened an investigation into Meta’s use of AI tools in WhatsApp over its alleged abuse of a dominant market position in its chatbot services. The Italian antitrust agency previously said it was working with its EU counterparts on the issue. The Financial Times reported on the EU probe earlier.

The commission said the opening of a formal investigation does not prejudge its outcome. The EU authority said its own case would exclude Italy to “avoid an overlap” with ongoing proceedings there for the possible imposition of interim measures concerning Meta’s conduct.

In April, Meta earlier came in for a €200 million ($234 million) fine for allegedly breaching the DMA, and in November 2024 it was ordered to pay €798 million for tying its Facebook Marketplace service to its social network — something regulators said amounted to an abuse of dominance.