The European Commission has ordered Meta to grant competing AI chatbots free access to its WhatsApp messaging platform within five working days, as Brussels escalates an ongoing antitrust investigation into the US technology giant. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to 10 percent of the company's annual global turnover.
The order marks a rare and significant use of interim measures — temporary remedies imposed before a full investigation concludes. EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the decision was necessary to prevent "serious and irreparable harm" to competition in the fast-growing market for AI assistants. "We cannot let large digital incumbents leverage their dominance of the past to dictate who in Europe gets to compete and who gets to innovate in AI," she told a press conference in Brussels. The commission noted it last resorted to such interim measures in 2019, underscoring how exceptional the step is.
The probe was launched in December 2025 after Meta changed its policy in October of that year, effectively barring third-party AI providers from accessing WhatsApp. The EU warned Meta in February that interim measures were forthcoming unless it opened the platform to rivals. Meta responded by introducing an access fee — a remedy the commission rejected in April as effectively equivalent to a ban. The EU's goal is to restore access under the same conditions that existed before the October 2025 policy change.
Meta said it would appeal the order, with a spokesperson accusing Brussels of "regulatory overreach subsidised by the many European companies that pay," and arguing that the measure would hand companies such as OpenAI free access to the platform. Traditional antitrust investigations can take years, and European regulators have increasingly sought faster tools to address harms in rapidly evolving digital markets before they become entrenched.
The ruling is the latest in a series of confrontations between the EU and major American technology companies. The Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc's flagship online competition law, has faced criticism from both US firms and the Trump administration. Apple this week blamed the DMA for delaying the rollout of its AI-enhanced Siri voice assistant in Europe — a claim the commission flatly rejected. Meta is also appealing a separate €200 million fine imposed under the DMA, and faces additional EU scrutiny over child safety practices on Facebook and Instagram.