The EU said this would ‘prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition’ in the growing market.

The EU has ordered Meta to open WhatsApp up to rival AI assistants and maintain access until the European Commission completes its antitrust investigation into the social media juggernaut.

The order comes after Meta said last month that it would give competing general-purpose AI agents free access to WhatsApp’s business API for a month. A spokesperson at the time told the media that the move would “provide the ⁠Commission and Meta with time to achieve a quick and fair outcome to the investigation”.

The EU, however, wants this arrangement to be extended, arguing that this would “prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition in this growing market by Meta’s conduct”.

The measures imposed by the EU will stay in place until the end of the investigation, or until June 2029. Meta has until next Monday (15 June) to comply with the changes.

In a response to SiliconRepublic.com, a Meta spokesperson called the EU’s move a “regulatory overreach”.

“The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” they said, adding that the company will appeal the decision.

The bloc launched its investigation into Meta in December last year after the company, in October, blocked competing third-party AI providers from reaching their customers through WhatsApp. In February, EU authorities told Meta that it had been breaching the bloc’s antitrust laws.

A month later, Meta changed course slightly and reinstated access to WhatsApp for third-party AI assistants – but for a fee, which the Commission rebutted was “equivalent to the previous access ban”.

The Commission’s move yesterday (9 June) orders Meta to open up access under the same terms and conditions that were in place prior to the October access ban.

“In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted,” said Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition.

“This is why these interim measures will remain in place for the duration of the investigation, in order to prevent harm that would be almost impossible to repair.

“These interim measures will safeguard competition in the growing market for AI assistants, by preserving a key entry point to reach consumers in Europe – WhatsApp – and allowing AI companies to innovate, scale up and reach their full potential.”

In its statement yesterday, the EU said that Meta – with WhatsApp – has held a dominant position in consumer communication applications in the bloc since at least 2023, and abused that position by preventing its own Meta AI from having to compete with third-party AI agents.

The Commission said that “at first sight”, this constituted a “refusal to provide access to an infrastructure developed for and previously open to third parties.”

It added: “There is an urgent need to prevent a risk of serious damage to the competitive structure in the growing market for general-purpose AI assistants.”

On the sidelines, the EU has been ramping up efforts to drum up business for home-grown AI technology in the bloc.

Last month, European Parliament lawmakers and member states agreed on a simplified version of the EU AI Act to drive up AI adoption, allow businesses time to comply with the new law and be able to compete with foreign businesses.

“Meta’s policy change risks harming competition at a key moment in time for the development of that market, where smaller player and new entrants can challenge large incumbents,” the Commission said. These are not the EU’s final findings on the matter.

In previous statements, Meta has argued that the Commission “incorrectly assumes” that the WhatsApp business API is a key distribution channel for AI chatbots, adding that there is “no reason” for the EU to intervene.

The social media giant is on the hook for up to 10pc of its annual global turnover if the EU ultimately finds that it broke antitrust laws under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the EEA Agreement.

Meta has faced an onslaught of legal issues in the past few months, including two investigations from Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán over the company’s recommender systems and compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA).

In April, the EU – in a separate investigation – preliminarily found that Instagram and Facebook breached the DSA for failing to “diligently” identify and mitigate risks that children under 13 face when using these platforms.

In March, a landmark US legal case found that Meta’s platforms were designed to be addictive to children, while a different case that concluded a day prior found that Meta’s platforms enable child sexual exploitation.

Earlier this week, Meta disclosed that 20,225 Instagram accounts were hacked over a period of more than a month after bad actors discovered a bug in Meta AI. In a new report, the New York Times found that roughly 34,000 Instagram accounts were affected in the April hack.

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Updated, 11.12 am, 10 June 2026: The article has been updated with a statement from a Meta spokesperson.