Meta plan to impose a fee for third-party AI assistants, but this could go against antitrust rules
The European Commission has warned Meta that plans to impose an access fee for artificial intelligence assistants may break antitrust rules.
Last year, Meta changed its policy and terms for WhatsApp and prohibited third parties from using the platform to communicate with customers. The social media firm blocked completing AI chatbots as a result, making Meta AI the only AI tool accessible to users.
The move sparked controversy from both critics and regulators and in response, Meta said it would reinstate AI companies’ access to WhatsApp in March for one year and added a subscription fee.
The EC said: “The commission notified Meta that 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.”
The commission has now confirmed it plans to order the tech giant to reinstate agents, and will put interim measures in place until it concludes its investigation.
“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,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition at the EU Commission.
“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,” she added in a statement.
Meta has previously said the increased use of AI chatbots on its platform has placed a strain on its systems, and argued that other more suitable channels are available for AI assistance to be used, such as app stores, email services, search engines, operating systems, and partnership integrations.
“The European Commission is proposing to use its regulatory powers to enable some of the largest companies in the world to use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free,” a Meta spokesperson told Affiliate Leaders.
“This means that a small bakery in France paying to use the service to take croissant orders will be picking up the tab for OpenAI. Small European businesses shouldn’t foot OpenAI’s bill,” the spokesperson added.
