Reflecting growing scrutiny of Big Tech’s use of generative AI, the European Commission announced on Thursday that the city of Brussels has opened a new antitrust investigation into Metaplatform over the rollout of artificial intelligence features on WhatsApp.
The move, earlier reported by Reuters and the Financial Times, marks the latest action by European regulators against big technology companies, as the European Union seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its growing influence.
After the California-based company integrated its Meta AI system into its messaging service earlier this year, the European Commission launched an investigation into “Meta’s new policy regarding AI providers’ access to WhatsApp.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson said that “the claims are baseless,” adding that the emergence of chatbots on the company’s platform is “straining a system it was not designed to support.”
“Still, the AI space is highly competitive, and people have many ways to access their preferred services, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.”
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been integrated into the WhatsApp interface across European markets since March 2025.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog launched a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta used its market power by integrating AI tools into WhatsApp. The investigation expanded in November to investigate whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking competing AI chatbots from its messaging platform.
The EU investigation will be conducted under traditional antitrust laws, rather than the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act, which is currently used to scrutinize Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential regulation, the FT reported, citing officials.
