European Union: European Commission issued a supplementary statement of objections to Meta indicating its intention to require it to restore third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp under equivalent conditions

On 15 April 2026, the European Commission sent a supplementary statement of objections to Meta regarding informing the company of its intention to order the reinstatement of third-party AI assistants' access to WhatsApp under conditions existing prior to 15 October 2025. The supplementary statement is part of an ongoing interim measures procedure within an investigation into whether Meta breached European Union antitrust rules by restricting the access of third-party general-purpose AI assistants to its messaging application. The Commission preliminarily found that Meta's revised policy, introduced on 4 March 2026, which replaced a previous access ban with a pricing framework, remains equivalent to an exclusion of competitors. The proposed interim measures aim to prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition in the market for AI assistants until a final decision is reached. Additionally, the Commission expanded the geographical scope of the investigation to include Italy, ensuring the findings cover the entire European Economic Area. Meta now has the opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings and request an oral hearing before any final decision on interim measures is adopted.