The European Commission on April 15, 2026 issued a Supplementary Statement of Objections against Meta, escalating one of the most technically significant antitrust cases in the emerging AI infrastructure market. Brussels concluded that a pricing framework Meta introduced in March 2026 - presented as a compromise after months of regulatory pressure - produces the same outcome as an outright ban of competing AI assistants from WhatsApp. The Commission intends to impose interim measures, and in a separate move it expanded the geographic scope of the investigation to cover Italy for the first time.

The case, registered under number AT.41034 at the Commission's competition case register, has unfolded across six months of escalating formal steps. For marketing technology companies and programmatic advertising operators that built AI-powered customer engagement workflows on WhatsApp's Business API, the stakes are direct: the outcome will determine whether competing AI tools can reach WhatsApp users across the European Economic Area - part of a platform with roughly 3 billion users globally.

How the ban became a fee

The sequence of events begins on 15 October 2025, when Meta announced an update to its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms. According to the Commission's press release dated 15 April 2026, the new terms effectively banned third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the application as of 15 January 2026. Services including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity - all of which had established integrations through the Business API - were cut off from EEA users on that date.

Italy's competition authority, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), had already moved first. The AGCM expanded an existing investigation on 25 November 2025 and launched precautionary proceedings, citing the same conduct. It also imposed its own interim measures in December 2025. Brazil's competition authority, CADE, followed in January 2026, finding prima facie evidence that Meta holds a dominant position in Brazil's instant messaging market - where WhatsApp reaches more than 150 million users, installed on 99% of smartphones.

On 4 December 2025, the Commission opened formal proceedings. It sent a first Statement of Objections to Meta on 9 February 2026, setting out its preliminary view that Meta breached EU antitrust rules - specifically Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement - by excluding third-party assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp. Meta submitted its response on 2 March 2026.

One day later, on 4 March 2026, Meta published a revised policy. According to the Commission, the company reversed the outright ban but introduced a pricing framework applicable to third-party general-purpose AI assistants. The move appeared to address the February objections. Brussels was not persuaded.

Why the fee model failed to satisfy Brussels

In the Supplementary Statement of Objections issued on 15 April 2026, the Commission assessed Meta's revised policy and reached a preliminary conclusion: the pricing framework is, in effect, equivalent to the access ban it replaced. According to the Commission's press release, "the revised policy seems to have the same effect of excluding third-party AI assistants from WhatsApp and thus appears at first sight to be in breach of EU competition rules."

Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, stated: "Pushing out competitors in fast-evolving markets like AI is exactly the type of conduct that interim measures are designed to address. Replacing the legal ban with pricing that has a similar effect does not change our preliminary view that Meta's conduct appears to be an abuse of its dominant position, that may seriously harm competition on the market for AI assistants. This is why we continue our proceedings towards interim measures, which would reinstate full access for rival AI assistants to WhatsApp until we have analysed the matter in full."

The Commission's theory of harm rests on the concept of a dominant position creating structural obligations. Under Article 102 TFEU, a dominant company cannot exploit its market position to restrict competition - whether by legal prohibition or by economic means that produce the same exclusionary effect. The logic is that pricing designed to make third-party access economically unviable functions as a ban in practice, even if it does not read as one on paper.

The Commission also flagged broader competitive consequences. According to the Commission's press release, "Meta's conduct risks blocking competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI assistants." The AI assistant market is not trivial: market data cited in PPC Land's coverage of the Italian proceedings estimated the sector at approximately $4.4 billion in 2024, growing to $7.3 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $11.7 billion in 2026. Denying rivals access to a platform with 3 billion users during this expansion phase carries real consequences for market structure.

The Commission's authority to impose interim measures before completing its full investigation derives from Article 8(1) of Regulation 1/2003. The provision allows such measures when two conditions are met: there must be, at first sight, an infringement of competition law, and there must be an urgent need for protective action due to the risk of serious and irreparable harm to competition.

A Supplementary Statement of Objections is a formal procedural step. According to the Commission, it informs the parties concerned of its preliminary findings in writing. Meta now has the right to examine the documents in the Commission's investigation file, reply in writing, and request an oral hearing to present its views before representatives of the Commission and national competition authorities. The sending of this document does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

If the Commission concludes, after Meta exercises its rights of defence, that the conditions for interim measures are met, it can adopt a formal decision imposing those measures. The adoption of an interim measures decision would not prejudge the Commission's final findings on the substance of the case. The interim measures would remain in place until the Commission completes its investigation and reaches a final decision on Meta's conduct.

The specific relief the Commission intends to seek is a return to conditions as they existed before 15 October 2025 - meaning third-party AI assistants would regain access to WhatsApp under the same terms that applied before Meta's policy change.

Italy absorbed into EEA-wide proceedings

A structurally significant detail in the 15 April 2026 announcement is the expansion of the Commission's investigation to cover Italy. According to the Commission, this was done through a separate opening decision, taken in cooperation with the Italian competition authority. The Commission stated that its findings will now cover the whole of the EEA.

Italy had been excluded from the original Commission investigation because the AGCM had opened its own parallel proceedings. Folding Italy back into the EEA-wide case removes jurisdictional fragmentation. It also means any interim measures the Commission imposes will apply to Italian WhatsApp users, whose situation had previously been handled separately by the national authority.

The cooperation between Brussels and Rome on this expansion reflects a broader pattern in European competition enforcement, where the Commission coordinates with national authorities through the European Competition Network to avoid duplication and ensure consistent treatment across member states.

Meta's regulatory posture across multiple fronts

The AT.41034 case does not exist in isolation. Meta faces a dense matrix of European regulatory proceedings. The Commission fined Meta 200 million euros in April 2025 for DMA violations related to its advertising consent architecture, and the company formally appealed that decision on 2 July 2025. The European Consumer Organisation BEUC published an analysis in March 2026 concluding that Meta's updated consent flow for Facebook and Instagram still falls short of DMA, GDPR, and Unfair Commercial Practices Directive requirements.

The AT.41034 case is distinct from those proceedings, however. As PPC Land reported in February 2026, the WhatsApp AI case is a straightforward antitrust refusal-to-deal claim under Article 102 TFEU. It requires no finding that Meta is a DMA gatekeeper. It requires only that Meta holds a dominant position - which the Commission, AGCM, and CADE have each independently assessed as likely - and that its conduct harms competition. The Commission appears confident enough in that assessment to seek emergency measures.

Meta, headquartered in the United States, is described in the Commission's background section as a multinational technology company whose flagship products include the social networks Facebook and Instagram, the consumer communication applications WhatsApp and Messenger, online advertising services, and virtual and augmented reality products. According to the Commission's press release, Meta provides a general-purpose AI assistant, Meta AI, and recently acquired another similar product, Manus AI.

That last detail is not incidental. Meta's acquisition of Manus AI means the company now operates two AI assistant products of its own, while simultaneously - according to the Commission's preliminary findings - restricting the conditions under which competitor assistants can access the messaging platform it controls.

What this means for businesses on WhatsApp

For companies that built customer service automation, lead qualification, or conversational commerce workflows using third-party AI tools connected to WhatsApp's Business API, the practical implications of this case are significant. OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity had established user-facing integrations through the Business API before the 15 January 2026 cutoff. Those integrations were severed when the new Business Solution Terms took effect.

WhatsApp bars AI chatbots as Meta solidifies messaging monopoly - the policy change targeted, according to the updated terms document dated 15 January 2026, "providers and developers of artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies, including but not limited to large language models, generative artificial intelligence platforms, general-purpose artificial intelligence assistants, or similar technologies." These entities are prohibited from accessing or using the WhatsApp Business Solution when such technologies are the "primary rather than incidental or ancillary functionality" being made available.

The distinction matters for businesses that operate in markets where WhatsApp functions as the primary customer communication channel. In Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil, and much of Southeast Asia, businesses depend on WhatsApp for a significant proportion of customer interactions. If interim measures take effect and third-party AI tools regain access, companies that paused AI-assisted workflows during the exclusion period would be able to resume them.

The broader pattern, visible across the Commission's recent enforcement activity, is consistent: regulators are willing to intervene in platform access decisions that shape the structure of emerging digital markets, not just traditional advertising markets. The AI assistant market, still in relatively early development, has attracted enforcement attention at the national and supranational level simultaneously - a pace that reflects how quickly the Commission believes competitive harm can become irreversible.

The precedent question

European competition law on interim measures under Article 8(1) of Regulation 1/2003 has a limited track record. The provision was used rarely in the years following its introduction. The Commission's willingness to invoke it here - and to pursue it even after Meta introduced a revised policy - signals an assessment that time matters. Interim measures are available precisely because full investigations take years, and if a market tips toward a monopoly structure before a final decision is reached, the remedy may be inadequate.

The Commission's use of a Supplementary Statement of Objections - rather than dropping the interim measures track after Meta's March 2026 revision - reflects its legal view that the revision did not cure the problem. Brussels is treating the fee model as a continuation of the same exclusionary conduct, not as a new fact that changes the competitive analysis.

WhatsApp's interoperability rollout for third-party messaging services in November 2025 shows that Meta can, and does, open the platform when required. That case involved DMA obligations for message-level interoperability with BirdyChat and Haiket. The Commission's position in AT.41034 is that the same logic - access under conditions that do not distort competition - should apply to AI assistant integrations.

More information on the case is available under case number AT.41034 in the public case register on the Commission's competition website.

Timeline

  • 15 October 2025 - Meta announces update to WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, banning third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the application for new providers; WhatsApp bars AI chatbots as Meta solidifies messaging monopoly
  • 25 November 2025 - Italy's AGCM expands its investigation and launches precautionary proceedings against Meta over the WhatsApp AI ban; Italy opens antitrust probe into Meta over WhatsApp AI chatbot exclusion
  • 4 December 2025 - European Commission opens formal antitrust proceedings in case AT.41034
  • December 2025 - Italy's AGCM imposes interim measures on Meta covering Italian users
  • 15 January 2026 - WhatsApp Business Solution Terms restrictions take full effect for all AI providers, including those previously present; ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity lose EEA access outside Italy
  • 12 January 2026 - Brazil's CADE publishes technical note imposing preventive measures against Meta; Brazil blocks Meta's WhatsApp AI chatbot ban in surprise move
  • 9 February 2026 - Commission sends Statement of Objections to Meta, stating its preliminary view that Meta breached EU antitrust rules and signalling intent to impose interim measures; EU pushes Meta toward interim measures over WhatsApp AI lockout
  • 2 March 2026 - Meta submits its response to the Statement of Objections
  • 4 March 2026 - Meta publishes revised policy, lifting the outright ban but introducing a pricing framework for third-party general-purpose AI assistants
  • 15 April 2026 - Commission issues Supplementary Statement of Objections, finding the fee model equivalent to the original ban; expands investigation to cover Italy in cooperation with AGCM; announces intent to impose interim measures

Summary

Who: The European Commission, acting through its Directorate-General for Competition, issued a Supplementary Statement of Objections against Meta Platforms, Inc. Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, is the named political official behind the action. Third-party AI assistant providers affected include OpenAI (ChatGPT), Microsoft (Copilot), and Perplexity. The Italian competition authority (AGCM) is cooperating in the expanded investigation.

What: The Commission escalated its antitrust case against Meta by issuing a second formal charge document - a Supplementary Statement of Objections - under case AT.41034. It found that Meta's revised March 2026 pricing framework for third-party AI assistants is, in effect, equivalent to the outright access ban Meta announced in October 2025. The Commission intends to impose interim measures requiring Meta to reinstate third-party AI assistant access to WhatsApp under the conditions that existed before 15 October 2025. The investigation's geographic scope was simultaneously expanded to include Italy.

When: The Supplementary Statement of Objections was issued on 15 April 2026. The underlying investigation was formally opened on 4 December 2025 and has been active since Meta's October 2025 policy change to its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms.

Where: The proceedings are conducted in Brussels under EU competition law. The investigation now covers the full European Economic Area, including Italy, following the separate opening decision taken in cooperation with the AGCM. Italy had previously been excluded because the AGCM had opened its own national proceedings.

Why: The Commission's preliminary view is that Meta holds a dominant position in messaging and is using its control over WhatsApp's Business API to restrict third-party AI assistants from competing in the AI assistant market. By replacing an outright ban with a pricing model that produces the same exclusionary effect, Meta's conduct - in the Commission's preliminary assessment - risks causing serious and irreparable harm to competition in a market that is growing rapidly. Interim measures are sought because the Commission considers that allowing the conduct to continue while a full investigation proceeds would result in harm that cannot be undone.

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