COMESA: COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission announced investigation into Meta Platforms over alleged anti-competitive conduct in WhatsApp's business solution terms

On 17 February 2026, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition and Consumer Commission announced an investigation into Meta Platforms and opened a public consultation over alleged abuse of a dominant position under the COMESA Competition and Consumer Protection Regulations, until 16 March 2026. The investigation follows Meta's amendment of its WhatsApp business solution terms on 15 October 2025, which allegedly excludes providers of general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) services from accessing the WhatsApp business application programming interface (API) while integrating Meta's own AI service. The Commission intends to assess whether this conduct substantially lessens competition by preventing rival AI providers from accessing WhatsApp as a key customer gateway in the COMESA Common Market.