EU Orders Meta to Reinstate AI Assistants

The European Union===European Commission intends to order Meta Platforms to reinstate rival AI assistants on its Meta Platforms===WhatsApp messaging service. This follows Meta Platforms' decision to impose an access fee for third-party AI assistants, which the European Union===European Commission believes violates EU competition rules by excluding competitors. The European Union===European Commission has notified Meta Platforms that its revised policy appears to breach these rules and plans to issue an order for Meta Platforms to reinstate access under previous conditions until October 15, 2025. Meta Platforms argues that this intervention would force it to provide services for free to large companies like OpenAI, at the expense of small businesses using Meta Platforms===WhatsApp Business. The investigation has also expanded to Italy, where a national competition watchdog is conducting its own probe.