EU antitrust battle over AI chatbot access on WhatsApp

The EU Just Told Meta to Open WhatsApp's AI Gates — And It Changes Everything

The European Commission just slapped Meta with a regulatory uppercut. On April 15, Brussels formally rejected Meta’s attempt to charge rival AI companies for access to WhatsApp’s 2 billion users — and threatened to force the tech giant to restore free access for competitors like Microsoft’s Copilot, OpenAI, and Perplexity. This isn’t just a legal skirmish. It’s the fight that decides whether you get to choose your AI assistant, or whether the company that owns your messaging app chooses for you. ...

April 15, 2026 · 5 min · DBBS Tech