Italy is asking Meta to suspend its policy banning rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp

Italy has ordered Meta to suspend its policy prohibiting companies from using WhatsApp’s business tools to introduce their own AI-powered chatbots on the popular chat app.

Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) on Wednesday He said It found enough reason in its ongoing investigations into whether Meta was abusing its dominant market position to introduce its Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp to issue an order suspending the policy.

“Meta’s conduct appears to constitute abuse, as it may limit production, market access, or technical developments in the AI ​​Chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers,” the agency wrote. “Furthermore, while the investigation is ongoing, Meta’s conduct may cause serious and irreparable harm to competition in the affected market, undermining competitiveness.”

The AGCM in November expanded the scope of its existing investigation into Meta, following the company Changed its API trading policy In October To block general-purpose chatbots from being displayed on a chat application via the API.

Meta has argued that its API is not designed to be a platform for distributing chatbots, and that people have more ways outside of WhatsApp to use AI bots from other companies. The policy change, which takes effect in January, will impact the availability of AI-powered chatbots from the likes of OpenAI, Perplexity and Poke on the app.

This policy does not affect companies that use artificial intelligence for customer service on WhatsApp. For example, a retailer operating an AI-powered customer service bot will not be blocked from using the API. Only distributing AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude via API is prohibited.

European Commission this month It also launched an investigation In the new policy, raising concerns that it may “prevent third-party AI service providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’).”

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.