(Dec 4): Meta Platforms Inc faces a full-scale antitrust investigation from the European Union as early as this week over how its AI features in WhatsApp may be harming competition, in the latest probe into Big Tech’s dominance on the continent.
The European Commission is preparing to open the investigation under its traditional antitrust rules, examining any alleged anticompetitive effects from the US company’s integration of its “Meta AI” system into the popular messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter.
Last month Italian regulators broadened an investigation into Meta’s use of AI tools in WhatsApp over its alleged abuse of a dominant market position in its chatbot services.
“We strongly reject these unfounded claims,” a Meta spokesperson said. WhatsApp’s API — an interface through which other services can integrate with the messaging app — was “never designed to be used for AI chatbots and doing so would place severe strain on our systems”.
The Financial Times reported the probe earlier. The people said that the probe was imminent but that timing could also slip.
The EU has in recent years ramped up pressure on Big Tech, seeking to curb potential market abuses as a handful of firms wield a huge amount of power across the digital sector. Aside from standard antitrust rules, legislation, in the shape of the Digital Markets Act, has established a series of dos and don’ts for the major players in order to curb anti-competitive behaviour.
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In April, Meta earlier came in for a €200 million (US$233 million or $302.64 million) fine for allegedly breaching those rules, and in November 2024 it was ordered to pay €798 million for tying its Facebook Marketplace service to its social network — something regulators said amounted to an abuse of dominance.
US President Donald Trump has long railed against EU tech and antitrust regulation impeding American companies. In August, he threatened to impose fresh tariffs and export restrictions on advanced technology and semiconductors in retaliation to other nations’ digital services taxes that hit American technology companies.
The European Commission declined to comment. Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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