There is a fight between Antitrust and the giant Meta that has again come to the attention of Competition and Markets Assurers for the new contract provisions of WhatsApp Business Solutions Terms and the new functional tools of Meta artificial intelligence in Whatsapp. But the big tech company “firmly” rejected the allegations as “baseless”.
Antitrust has expanded initial proceedings initiated in July against Meta by citing provisions of the WhatsApp Business Solutions Terms contract that “excludes from the WhatsApp platform, effective October 15, 2025, companies that compete with Meta AI in the AI Chatbot services market.” According to the Authority, “modification of the terms of this contract” would likely limit production, outlets or technical development in the AI Chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers, and constitute a possible violation of Article 102 TFEU”.
Furthermore, the Authority believes that Meta’s “violations of competition laws could seriously and irreparably harm market competition, due to the lack of consumer inclination to change habits that hinder the transition to competing services”.
“WhatsApp’s API is not designed for use with artificial intelligence chatbots and doing so would cause serious overload on our systems,” but Meta defended itself, stating that “the latest update has no impact on the tens of thousands of companies that provide customer support and send relevant communications, or on the companies that use the AI assistants they love to communicate with their customers.” New comparisons open. Meanwhile, consumers like the new Antitrust measures, and Codacons warns how the issue of artificial intelligence functions related to WhatsApp “to date involves 37 million users in Italy using the messaging app (more than 2 billion worldwide), and risks direct negative impacts for consumers themselves”. Applause also came from the senatorial president of Forza Italia, Maurizio Gasparri. “Finally something is moving against these giants, who have ignored the rules for years and paid only 1% in taxes.”
Meta came to the attention of the Authority, led by Roberto Rustichelli, last July due to alleged abuse of a dominant position following the pre-installation of artificial intelligence services on Whatsapp in March 2025 for all users. Previously, in June, Antitrust had imposed a fine of 3.5 million for unfair commercial practices related to registration services on Instagram. Another investigation was opened in 2022 into possible abuse of Siae.
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