In a bid to stave off a major investigation by the European Commission, Meta said on Thursday that it will allow AI companies to offer their chatbots on WhatsApp through its business API for the next 12 months in Europe.
The move comes a month after the European Commission he said Meta that it intended to impose interim measures to stop the company from implementing its policy, which prohibited third-party AI chatbot providers from using the WhatsApp Business API to offer their services on the app.
“For the next 12 months, we will be supporting 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 this removes the need for any immediate intervention as it gives the European Commission the time it needs to complete its investigation.”
Meta says it will allow general purpose AI chatbot providers to offer their services on WhatsApp for a feewhich ranges from €0.0490 to €0.1323 per “non-standard message”, depending on the country. Considering the fact that conversations with AI assistants typically involve dozens of messages, the bill could prove costly for third-party service providers.
“The Commission is analyzing the impact these changes may have on its investigation into provisional measures, as well as its broader antitrust investigation into substance,” a European Commission spokesman said in an emailed statement.
The policy change took effect on January 15, prompting several AI assistant providers to complain to regulators that it was disrupting their operations and that the decision was anti-competitive.
Specifically, the policy does not apply to businesses that use artificial intelligence to serve customers on WhatsApp. For example, a retailer running an AI customer service bot that sends templated messages will not be blocked from using the API. Only AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude or Poke are prohibited from being offered through the API.
The decision follows a similar move by the company in January, when it began allowing developers to use 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 launching investigations, especially since the company offers its own AI chatbot, Meta AI, on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has previously justified its stance by arguing that AI chatbots strain its systems in ways its Business API is not designed to support. “The AI space is highly competitive, and people are accessing the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, collaboration integrations, and operating systems,” the company previously told TechCrunch.
