Italy Tells Meta to Suspend Its Policy That Bans Rival AI Chatbots from WhatsApp

Italy has ordered Meta to suspend a policy that prevents companies from using WhatsApp's business tools to offer their own AI chatbots on the messaging platform.

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said on Wednesday that it found sufficient grounds in its ongoing investigation into whether Meta is abusing its dominant market position by promoting its Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp. Based on these findings, the Authority ordered Meta to suspend the policy.

"Meta's conduct appears to constitute an abuse, since it may limit production, market access, or technical developments in the AI chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers," the Authority wrote. It added that while the investigation continues, Meta's actions could cause "serious and irreparable harm to competition," undermining market fairness.

In November, the AGCM expanded an existing investigation into Meta following the company's October update to its business API policy. The change banned general-purpose AI chatbots from being distributed via WhatsApp's API.

Meta has argued that WhatsApp's API was never intended to serve as a distribution platform for AI chatbots and that users can still access rival AI tools through other channels. The policy, set to take effect in January, would limit the availability of AI chatbots from companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Poke on WhatsApp.

The restriction does not apply to businesses using AI for customer service on WhatsApp. For example, retailers running AI-powered customer support bots can continue using the API—the ban applies only to general-purpose AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Claude.

Earlier this month, the European Commission also launched an investigation into Meta's policy, expressing concerns that it could "prevent third-party AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in the European Economic Area (EEA)."

Calling the Italian Authority's decision "fundamentally flawed," Meta said WhatsApp's business API is not a route to market for AI companies.

"The emergence of AI chatbots on our Business API put a strain on our systems that they were not designed to support," Meta said in an emailed statement. "The Italian Authority assumes WhatsApp is somehow a de facto app store. The route to market for AI companies is app stores, websites, and industry partnerships — not the WhatsApp Business Platform. We will appeal."

Note: This story was updated to add Meta's response to the decision.