The EU is threatening Meta with an interim ban over WhatsApp policies that allegedly block rival AI companies from the platform

The European Commission issued a supplementary statement of objections warning it intends to impose interim measures against Meta over policies that complainants say unfairly prevent rival AI providers from offering their business services through WhatsApp, unless Meta provides fixes that satisfy regulators. Meta pushed back, framing the commission's position as forcing small businesses that pay for WhatsApp Business to effectively subsidize large AI companies like OpenAI, saying “a small bakery in France paying to use the service to take croissant orders will be picking up the tab for OpenAI.” The commission also expanded its probe to include Italy, which had previously been investigating the same issue separately through its national antitrust agency.