Meta will allow third-party AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Europe for the next 12 months via its Business API, charging providers per message. This is a direct response to regulatory pressure from the European Commission, which is investigating antitrust concerns over Meta's initial ban.
The policy change aims to avert immediate regulatory intervention while the EU concludes its investigation. However, AI providers have complained the per-message fees are costly and anti-competitive.
The rule applies specifically to general-purpose AI assistants like ChatGPT, not to businesses using AI for customer service. The move follows similar regulatory-driven concessions by Meta in other markets like Italy.
Main topics: Meta's policy reversal on AI chatbots in WhatsApp, European Commission antitrust investigation, business model of charging API fees, and the distinction between general-purpose and business-use AI.
In a bid to stave off a major investigation by the European Commission, Meta said on Thursday that it would allow AI companies to offer their chatbots on WhatsApp via its business API for the next 12 months in Europe.
The move comes a month after the European Commission told Meta that it intended to impose interim measures in order to stop the company from implementing its policy, which barred third-party AI chatbot providers from using the WhatsApp Business API to offer their services on the app.
“For the next 12 months, we’ll support general-purpose AI chatbots using the WhatsApp Business API in Europe in response to the European Commission’s regulatory process,” the company said in an emailed statement. “We believe that this removes the need for any immediate intervention as it gives the European Commission the time it needs to conclude its investigation.”
Meta says it will allow general-purpose AI chatbot providers to offer their services on WhatsApp for a fee, which ranges from €0.0490 to €0.1323 per “non-template message,” depending on the country. Considering the fact that conversations with AI assistants usually comprise dozens of messages, the bill could prove costly for third-party service providers.
“The Commission is analysing the impact these changes may have on its interim measures investigation, as well as on its broader antitrust investigation on the substance,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said in an emailed statement.
The policy change went into effect on January 15, spurring several AI assistant providers to complain to regulators that it was disrupting their business and the decision was anti-competitive.
Notably, the policy does not apply to businesses that are using AI to serve customers on WhatsApp. For instance, a retailer running an AI-powered customer service bot that sends templatized messages won’t be barred from using the API. Only AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Poke are prohibited from being offered via the API.
The decision follows a similar move by the company in January, when it started allowing developers to tap its API to offer their chatbots in Italy.
Regulators around the world raised antitrust concerns after Meta announced the policy change last October, with the EU, Italy, and Brazil all launching investigations, especially because the company offers its own AI chatbot, Meta AI, on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has in the past justified its stance by arguing that AI chatbots strain its systems in ways that its Business API wasn’t designed to support. “The AI space is highly competitive, and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems,” the company previously told TechCrunch.
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