EU’s WhatsApp Order Becomes a Template for Google Too

ChatGPT started answering messages inside WhatsApp again for European users on July 13, not because Meta changed its mind, but because Brussels made it do so. The European Commission ordered the fix on June 9, giving Meta five working days to reopen the WhatsApp Business API to rival AI assistants or face fines.

That reads like the whole story. It is the smaller half of it. Five weeks later, the commission reused the same legal playbook on Google, and a court ruling shut the one exit gatekeepers were still counting on.

A Five-Day Deadline Puts ChatGPT Back on WhatsApp

The commission’s decision gave Meta five working days to restore free access to the WhatsApp Business API for rival general-purpose AI assistants, on the same terms that applied before October 15, 2025. Meta had blocked outside AI providers from that channel that month while leaving its own Meta AI assistant untouched.

The commission said its goal was to preserve free access to WhatsApp for rival AI assistants while its antitrust investigation runs its course. OpenAI restored ChatGPT’s access inside the window. The change reached all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the European Economic Area (EEA), on July 13, reopening what Tech Times described as a gateway to roughly half a billion WhatsApp users.

Meta said it would appeal but had to comply regardless.

This is regulatory overreach subsidised by the many European companies that pay.

Meta said in a statement, arguing the commission had effectively let some of the largest AI companies in the world use its paid WhatsApp Business product for free.

Twenty Years, Two Orders

Interim measures are rare in EU competition law. Tech Times counted only one prior example in more than two decades before this one landed. The tool lets the commission act mid investigation, without waiting years for a final ruling, once it finds a preliminary breach and a risk that competition will be damaged before that final ruling ever arrives.

1. October 2025: Meta rewrites its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, barring rival general-purpose AI assistants for new providers immediately and for existing ones like OpenAI from January 15, 2026.
2. December 4, 2025: The commission opens a formal antitrust investigation under Article 102 TFEU, the EU treaty rule against abusing a dominant market position.
3. February 9, 2026: The commission warns Meta of possible interim measures to reverse the exclusion.
4. March 2026: Meta reinstates access, but through a paid model that charges rival AI firms for the same API.
5. April 14, 2026: The commission sends a fresh charge sheet over Meta’s access fee after concluding the pricing made rival access unworkable.
6. June 9, 2026: The commission formally orders interim measures, giving Meta five working days to comply.
7. July 13, 2026: ChatGPT and other rival assistants come back online across the EEA.

Teresa Ribera, the EU’s competition commissioner, framed the stakes back in February, warning that Brussels would not let dominant firms “illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage.” She later said Meta’s access fee was “not economically sustainable for competitors,” without detailing the figure.

Five Weeks Later, Brussels Runs the Same Play on Google

On July 16, the commission adopted two more decisions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU law that forces designated gatekeeper platforms to open up to rivals. This time the target was Google.

The first decision, issued under DMA Article 6(7), requires Google to open eleven Android features to rival AI services on the same terms Gemini enjoys, spanning invocation triggers like wake words, on-device context, app actions, system services and processing resources. A second, parallel decision requires Google to share anonymized search data with competitors starting in January 2027. Both grew out of specification proceedings the commission opened on January 27, 2026, six months earlier.

Gemini’s memory features inside Google Maps have already drawn separate EU attention over personalization; this decision goes further, prying open the operating system itself for outside AI assistants. Two different legal tools, one shared complaint: a dominant platform reserving the best access for its own assistant, Meta AI or Gemini, while rivals fight for scraps.

A Court Ruling Closes the Exit for Every Gatekeeper

A July 8 ruling from the General Court, the EU’s second-highest court, removed the option gatekeepers were counting on. Tech Times reported that the ruling, which grew out of Apple’s own gatekeeper disputes, confirmed that designated gatekeepers cannot challenge DMA obligations in the abstract. They must comply while any appeal plays out.

That is why Meta’s appeal of the June 9 order did not pause the WhatsApp restoration, and it is why Google has no obvious path to delay its own Android obligations by simply filing a challenge. Apple faces separate EU scrutiny of its own over AI feature integration policies, Tech Times noted, meaning three of the world’s largest platforms are now operating under some version of the same legal logic at once.

Who Gets Through WhatsApp’s Door First?

Four companies filed the complaints that pushed Brussels into action, spanning three countries and two continents. Commission officials have pointed out that roughly half of them are American, pushing back on any suggestion that the case simply shields European rivals from a dominant US platform.

• OpenAI – had been running ChatGPT on WhatsApp’s Business API before Meta’s October policy change cut it off
• The Interaction Company – a California-based AI firm named among the complainants pressing Brussels to act
• Agentik – a French startup that joined the complaint against Meta’s terms
• An unnamed Spanish AI provider – the fourth complainant cited in regulatory reporting on the case

The case sits on the commission’s public register under case number AT.41034, alongside a separate national probe in Italy that the wider EU investigation does not cover.

Meta and Google Both Call It Overreach

Google raised its own objections the same week its order landed. Kent Walker, Google’s global affairs head, said the rulings “risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans,” according to Tech Research Online’s report on the decision.

The R Street Institute, a policy research group, published a critique arguing that the DMA’s interoperability mandate collides with the EU’s own Cyber Resilience Act, which requires the same companies to minimize attack surfaces and build products that are secure by default. Opening invocation surfaces, screen content and cross-app execution to outside providers, the group argued, pulls in the opposite direction.

Meta’s own AI ambitions are tangled up elsewhere too. Its compute talks with Anthropic have already exposed friction with Amazon and Google’s cloud stakes in that lab, a reminder that the leading AI players are now competing on every front, inside WhatsApp and well beyond it.

Deadlines Stack Up Through 2029

Google’s search data sharing obligation begins in January 2027. Most of the eleven Android features are due with the next major Android release and no later than August 1, 2027, based on legal tracking of the decision, with voice wake word support following by August 2028.

Meta’s interim order runs until June 2029 or the end of the antitrust investigation, whichever comes first. Non-compliance also risks daily penalty payments of up to 5% of Meta’s average daily turnover, separate from the underlying fine. There is no legal deadline for finishing that investigation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an Interim Measures Order Under EU Competition Law?

It lets the commission act before a final ruling, but only when it finds a prima facie competition law violation and decides that waiting for a full investigation would cause serious and irreparable harm to competitors. Before the Meta case, the tool had been used only once before in more than twenty years.

Does the WhatsApp Order Cover All of Europe?

It applies across the EEA: all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Italy is excluded from this particular commission case because its own national competition authority is running a parallel investigation into Meta’s practices there.

What Happens if Meta Wins Its Appeal?

The appeal goes to the General Court, and under the July 8 sequencing ruling, Meta must keep complying with the interim order the entire time the case is pending, regardless of how long that takes.

Which Other Tech Companies Face Similar EU Scrutiny?

Apple faces separate EU scrutiny over its AI feature integration policies. The General Court’s sequencing rule that boxed in Meta and Google was itself built on earlier rulings from Apple’s own gatekeeper disputes.

What Is the WhatsApp Business API?

It is the interface companies use to run automated messaging, including AI chatbots, on WhatsApp, separate from the ordinary consumer app. Meta’s October 2025 policy change is what cut rival AI assistants off from that interface in the first place.