Brazil’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to suspend a policy that prohibits third-party AI companies from using its business API to offer chatbots on its app. The agency has also launched an investigation into the company to determine whether the policy is anticompetitive.
“The investigation shows the possibility of anti-competitive conduct of an exclusionary nature arising from the application of the new WhatsApp Terms (“WhatsApp Business Solutions Terms”) imposed by Meta to regulate the access and provision of technology to WhatsApp users by providers of artificial intelligence tools,” Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE) said.
CADE said it will investigate whether Meta’s terms exclude competitors and unfairly favor Meta AI, its chatbot on WhatsApp.
Last October, Meta changed its terms of service for the WhatsApp Business API, banning third-party AI companies from offering chatbots on the app. Companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft quickly announced that their chatbots would no longer be available on WhatsApp after the policy went into effect on January 15th. Notably, Meta’s policy does not prevent businesses from offering their own chatbots to customers within WhatsApp, whether AI-powered or not.
CADE’s investigation comes as the European Union, like Italy, has launched its own antitrust investigation into the new policy. If the EU finds that Meta has violated antitrust laws, it could be fined up to 10% of its global revenue.
Meta has told AI providers that they can continue offering their AI chatbots to users in Italy after the new rules take effect on January 15, according to a notice to developers seen by TechCrunch. The company may make a similar decision in Brazil following CADE’s order.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.
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The company has consistently argued that AI chatbots are taxing systems designed for various uses of business APIs. Meta has even said in the past that those who want to use a different chatbot can do so outside of WhatsApp.
“The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to enable businesses to provide customer support and send relevant updates. We are focused on supporting the tens of thousands of businesses that are building these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said when the company changed its terms in October.
