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The European Union (EU) ordered Meta on Tuesday to provide rival artificial intelligence chatbots with free access to its WhatsApp platform within five working days or face a heavy fine.
The interim measure forces the US tech giant to maintain this access while regulators complete an ongoing antitrust investigation.
EU antitrust commissioner Teresa Ribera stated that the order intends to prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition within the rapidly growing AI assistant market.
The directive follows an EU probe launched in December into Meta’s policy of blocking non-Meta AI providers from WhatsApp.
Meta previously attempted to charge an access fee to settle the dispute, but the European Commission rejected that remedy in April, labelling the fee an effective continuation of the ban.
Regulators now want Meta to reinstate third-party access under the same conditions that existed before the company barred rivals in October 2025.
If Meta intentionally or negligently ignores this order, the European Commission can impose a fine of up to 10 per cent of the company’s global turnover from the preceding business year.
This aggressive stance reflects Brussels’ broader effort to curb abusive practices by Big Tech firms.
The EU is simultaneously investigating Meta over child safety and addictive platform designs on Instagram and Facebook, while Meta continues to appeal a 200 million euro fine under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
