The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has issued a temporary order to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, requesting it to suspend a new policy that prevents competing artificial intelligence chatbot services from operating on the WhatsApp platform.
🔍 Investigation Background
This move comes as part of a broader investigation launched by the authority earlier to assess the integration of Meta's services within WhatsApp and its legitimacy.
· The immediate reason is a policy announced by Meta in October 2025, explicitly preventing general artificial intelligence service providers from using WhatsApp tools designed for customer communication.
· The authority expressed concern that Meta's behavior may constitute an abuse of its dominant market position, restricting competition and technological development in the smart chatbot market and ultimately harming consumers.
⚖️ Details of the order and potential implications
The temporary order comes to ensure that the WhatsApp platform remains available to Meta's competitors in the field of artificial intelligence, while investigations continue.
· The authority indicated that the necessary conditions for taking such an emergency action have been met.
· For its part, Meta defended its policy by stating that the WhatsApp API was not originally designed for use by general smart chatbots.
· The Italian authority is cooperating in this case with EU antitrust bodies, which are also examining whether Meta's policy violates competition rules within the bloc.
📜 The broader context: Technology companies and the European Union
This action occurs within an escalating context of European regulatory scrutiny of major tech companies:
· Meta is already facing separate European investigations regarding this matter, and fines could reach up to 10% of the company's annual revenue if violations are proven.
· Earlier this year, the European Union fined Google €2.95 billion in a case related to advertising, and fined Meta €200 million in another case related to data protection.