New Delhi: Brussels is in the process of launching a new antitrust investigation of Meta Platforms regarding the integration of the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities into WhatsApp. The investigation underscores an increase in questioning the blistering development of generative AI through large consumer platforms by Big Tech. The chatbot and the virtual assistant known as Meta AI have been installed into the interface of WhatsApp in European markets since March 2025.

According to FT, the European Commission intended to commence the investigation earlier this year, but it is now in the process of settling on its methodology. Meta denied that it had received any particular information and referred to its previous dismissal of an equivalent Italian investigation as baseless. The antitrust authority in Italy initiated its investigation in July but expanded it to look into whether Meta had thwarted the progress of competitors by limiting rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp.

The Italian regulator is investigating whether Meta had pushed its AI assistant into WhatsApp despite not providing users with a sufficient choice as a result of its dominant position in the market. Claims that Meta might have prevented third-party AI services from running on the messaging platform are also being examined by regulators, and this could restrict competition in the emerging AI tools market.

The next investigation that the EU will provide will be done according to the usual antitrust rules and not the Digital Markets Act, which is already in use to examine the cloud services of Amazon and Microsoft. It is anticipated that the Commission will officially state the investigation in the near future, but the schedule might change. The European Commission refused to comment on the case.