w/Commission
Report from the Wall Street Journal
In Brief – Meta has offered to allow rival AI chatbots to use WhatsApp to interact with their users in the EU free of charge for one month as it seeks to work out an agreement with the European Commission on how AI chatbots use the messaging service. Commission antitrust regulators are investigating changes made to WhatsApp business terms that effectively block third-party AI assistants from interacting with users through the platform, as well as a Meta offer to allow chatbots to use WhatsApp for a per-message fee. Antitrust officials have warned Meta that it was prepared to order the company to reverse the chatbot policy and fee while their probe continues. Meta described the temporary free access to the WhatsApp Business API as an opportunity for the two sides to negotiate a broader resolution. A European Commission spokesperson described Meta’s latest concession as “a step in the right direction,” saying it effectively mirrors measures regulators were considering imposing through interim legal action while discussions continue over a longer-term settlement.
Context – Italy’s competition regulator was the first to order Meta to suspend its de facto chatbot ban. In response, Meta announced that they would instead charge AI companies in Italy a per message fee for running their chatbots on WhatsApp like they currently do for many uses of WhatsApp’s business API. Brazil’s antitrust regulator later issued a similar order and has also rejected Meta’s fee plan. Regulators who are sympathetic to chatbot operators highlight WhatsApp’s strong position in the messaging market, while Meta argues that its own chatbot holds a very small share of the AI chatbot market compared to dominant providers like OpenAI, which has a 70% market share in the EU. Meta’s chatbot ban does not stop the operations of its own chatbots over WhatsApp, which raises non-discrimination concerns. Also, Meta’s fee proposal imposes the same charges on small chatbot competitors as it does on OpenAI.