On December 24, 2025, Italy’s competition authority, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), ordered Meta to immediately suspend WhatsApp Business terms that excluded rival general-purpose AI assistants. It was an interim measure—not a final finding that Meta broke competition law. The European Commission subsequently ordered Meta, on June 9, 2026, to restore free access for rival assistants under the pre-October 15, 2025 conditions while its broader investigation continues.
The dispute concerns access to WhatsApp Business infrastructure, not a ban on ordinary users discussing AI or using ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other services outside WhatsApp.
What Italy ordered Meta to do
The AGCM ordered Meta Platforms, its relevant Irish companies, WhatsApp Ireland, and Facebook Italy to suspend the WhatsApp Business Solution Terms at issue in Italy. The authority relied on interim-measures powers under Article 14-bis of Italian Law 287/1990 while examining possible abuse of dominance under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). AGCM’s December 24, 2025 announcement
That order preserved access for competing assistants during the investigation. It did not permanently invalidate Meta’s terms, establish final liability, or decide what remedies would be required after the case ended.
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Meta introduced the relevant WhatsApp Business Solution Terms on October 15, 2025. They broadly prevented providers from accessing or using WhatsApp Business when artificial intelligence or machine learning—such as a large language model, generative-AI platform, or general-purpose assistant—was the provider’s primary functionality. AGCM document reproducing the terms
| Date | Effect |
|---|---|
| October 15, 2025 | New terms took effect; new general-purpose AI providers were excluded immediately. |
| January 15, 2026 | Existing general-purpose AI providers were scheduled to lose access. |
| December 24, 2025 | AGCM ordered Meta to suspend the exclusionary terms in Italy. |
| June 9, 2026 | The European Commission ordered restoration of free access under the pre-October 15 conditions while its investigation continued. |
The wording did not necessarily cover every company that uses AI. A retailer using an automated model for product questions, a booking service, or a logistics operation is different from a provider whose main product is an open-ended chatbot. Eligibility still depends on Meta’s terms and enforcement, so a narrow business use should not be treated as an automatic exemption.
Which AI services were affected?
Contemporary coverage identified OpenAI’s ChatGPT on WhatsApp, Perplexity, Poke (associated with The Interaction Company), and other general-purpose assistants using WhatsApp’s business infrastructure. TechCrunch, December 24, 2025
This was not a prohibition on every chatbot or AI-enabled customer-service system. The central category was a provider whose primary functionality was general-purpose AI assistance.
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The authority’s preliminary theory was that Meta controls a major consumer-communications channel, has integrated its own Meta AI into WhatsApp, and then restricted rival assistants from using the same distribution route. Users may be reluctant to change messaging platforms or install a separate service, making WhatsApp access commercially important for an AI provider.
The AGCM said the conduct could affect market access, innovation, technical development, production, and the contestability of the AI-assistant market. The issue was not simply that Meta owned a competing chatbot; it was whether Meta could use control over WhatsApp to disadvantage competitors. AGCM investigation launch and AGCM’s November 26, 2025 update
The platform-control trade-off
Meta can argue that controlling WhatsApp Business access helps manage spam, abuse, privacy, infrastructure capacity, safety, user experience, and commercial sustainability. Regulators’ concern is that those controls cannot be used to eliminate direct competitors to Meta AI when the platform is an important route to users.
What ordinary WhatsApp users did—and did not—lose
The dispute concerned AI providers’ access to WhatsApp Business tools and APIs. It did not stop users from discussing AI in ordinary chats, using ChatGPT or Perplexity through their own apps and websites, or asking Meta AI questions inside WhatsApp. The practical consumer issue was which third-party assistants could operate as WhatsApp-based services. European Commission description of the policy
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How the European case changed the story
Separate EU investigation
The AGCM opened its national investigation on July 22, 2025 and expanded it in November to examine the WhatsApp Business terms. The European Commission opened a separate EU antitrust investigation on December 4, 2025. Commission competition-policy updates
Meta’s March pricing change
According to the Commission, Meta announced on March 4, 2026 that third-party general-purpose assistants could return, but under a fee structure. In April, the Commission said that pricing could have an effect similar to the earlier legal exclusion. In other words, formally allowing access may not resolve a competition concern if the price makes access commercially impractical. European Commission, April 16, 2026
June 9 interim measures
The Commission ordered Meta to restore free access for rival general-purpose AI assistants on the terms and conditions that applied before October 15, 2025. Meta was given five working days to comply, and the measure was to remain in force while the Commission’s investigation continued. European Commission, June 9, 2026
This EU action is broader and later than Italy’s national order, but it is also provisional. It does not end the antitrust case or establish final infringement.
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What the dispute means for developers and businesses
General-purpose assistants
A provider whose principal product is an open-ended AI assistant faces direct exposure to WhatsApp policy changes, fees, and regulatory remedies. Access through a business-solution provider or other intermediary does not automatically avoid Meta’s underlying terms.
Customer-service and vertical bots
An LLM used to answer questions about a company’s own products, process bookings, or support logistics may be treated differently from a general-purpose assistant. The decisive question is likely the provider’s primary functionality, but only Meta’s applicable terms and enforcement determine practical access.
Resilience planning
Businesses should maintain an independent channel—such as a web or mobile app, email, SMS or RCS, another messaging platform, or a proprietary support portal. Each alternative has different reach, authentication, privacy, compliance, automation, and cost characteristics. A reseller of WhatsApp access cannot guarantee immunity from a change to Meta’s platform rules.
What happens next
Italy’s action and the Commission’s June measure are temporary safeguards intended to prevent potentially serious or irreversible competitive harm before a final decision. The underlying investigation remained unresolved as of August 18, 2026. Future outcomes could include a final finding, commitments, remedies, appeals, or no infringement finding.
The central legal question is whether Meta may set reasonable access and safety rules for WhatsApp Business while also using those rules—or economically equivalent pricing—to favor Meta AI over rival assistants.
The Bottom Line
Italy’s December 2025 order paused Meta’s exclusion of rival general-purpose AI assistants from WhatsApp Business; it did not prove a violation. The European Commission later required free access to be restored under the old terms, leaving the broader competition case open.
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