EU Orders Meta to Restore Free WhatsApp Access for Rival AI Chatbots

The European Commission has directed Meta to restore unrestricted and free access to its WhatsApp platform for third-party AI chatbots while it completes an antitrust probe launched last December. The interim order, issued on June 10, requires the company to reinstate the terms that existed before its October 2025 policy change, which had excluded rival assistants from the WhatsApp Business API. Meta must comply by June 15.

The move marks only the second use of such emergency powers by EU regulators in more than two decades. Officials argue that Meta holds a dominant position in European messaging apps and that its restrictions risk causing lasting harm to competition in the emerging market for general-purpose AI assistants. They point to the earlier shift, in which Meta briefly allowed paid access starting in March, as insufficient to address their concerns.

Meta built WhatsApp into one of the most widely used communication tools through years of product development, user acquisition, and infrastructure investment. The company's initial decision to limit API access reflected a standard business choice about how to allocate resources and control the environment in which its service operates. Forcing continued free entry for outside developers reverses that choice by regulatory fiat rather than through demonstrated consumer harm or proven exclusionary conduct.

Antitrust enforcement of this kind often treats successful scale as inherently suspect. Yet platforms like WhatsApp grew because users voluntarily adopted them over alternatives. Requiring the owner to subsidize access for competitors shifts costs onto the firm that created the network effects in the first place. This approach risks reducing the incentive for future investment in messaging infrastructure or AI integration, since returns can be clawed back once dominance is achieved.

The Commission frames its action as preserving an entry point for innovation. In practice, the order compels one private entity to supply a distribution channel at zero price to firms that have not borne the same development expenses. Such mandates substitute administrative judgment for the price signals and voluntary agreements that ordinarily govern commercial relationships. Historical evidence from other regulated industries suggests these interventions frequently produce unintended effects, including slower adaptation and reduced experimentation by the targeted company.

Meta has not yet indicated how it will adjust its AI offerings or API policies in response. The broader investigation continues, and the interim requirement will remain in effect until that process concludes. For now, the episode illustrates how competition authorities can override platform operators' control over their own systems even before any final finding of violation.