Khaberni - The Italian Competition and Antitrust Authority, today Wednesday, announced that it is investigating Meta Platforms, the owner of "Facebook and WhatsApp", regarding the potential misuse of its dominant position as a result of integrating its artificial intelligence chat service into WhatsApp.
The Authority explained that Meta's artificial intelligence service has gained more importance on WhatsApp compared to competing services.
The Authority also announced that it has imposed provisional measures on Meta and its subsidiaries in Ireland and Italy to prevent them from excluding other AI chat applications from WhatsApp.
The Authority reported that Meta's behavior "appears to constitute an abuse, as it may limit production or access to the market or technical developments in the market of AI-supported chat services, harming consumers."
The Authority added that it is taking this action while the investigation is ongoing because Meta's conduct could cause irreparable harm to the competition in the affected market. It added that it is coordinating with the European Commission to address this issue.
Therefore, the Authority ordered Meta to "immediately suspend the terms of WhatsApp Business solutions to preserve Meta AI competitors' access to the WhatsApp platform."
On his part, a spokesperson for Meta denied these allegations, stating to the Italian news agency "ANSA" that the decision is baseless and that Meta will challenge the demands of the Competition Authority.
