Italy’s watchdog has ordered Facebook’s parent company Metaplatforms to suspend its policy of banning competing AI chatbot services from its messaging site WhatsApp.
The social media giant risks distorting competition in Italy’s AI chatbot market, prompting regulators to issue an interim order against the company, according to reports.
Meta is already facing the following situation EU investigation The social media company was accused of potentially violating the bloc’s competition rules after it announced a policy in October that would ban AI providers from using tools that allow businesses to contact customers via WhatsApp if AI is offered as a primary service.
Meta actions could threaten competition
Italy’s competition authority, known as AGCM, said on Wednesday that the order was based on an investigation to assess the integration of Meta’s own services into WhatsApp. of investigation AGCM says it is still in progress.
Authorities expressed concern that Meta’s actions could threaten competition. As such, this interim order aims to preserve the social media giant’s AI competitors’ access to the WhatsApp platform while the investigation into the matter continues.
Meta has previously said it is working with law enforcement authorities, adding that the WhatsApp application programming interface was not designed for AI chatbots. But authorities are optimistic that Mehta’s actions could pose a serious threat to competition with social networking giants. dominant position.
“Meta’s actions appear to constitute fraud because they limit production, market access, and technology development in the AI chatbot service market, potentially putting consumers at a disadvantage.”
AGCM.
Earlier this year, AGCM launched an investigation to assess whether the AI features introduced by Mehta to WhatsApp constituted an abuse of dominant position.
Last month, authorities expanded the scope of their investigation to include changes to WhatsApp’s terms of business to exclude general-purpose AI chatbots from its platform, adding that new rules for social media companies could require interim measures.
The AGCM also clarified on Wednesday that the conditions for adopting interim measures have been met. The agency also added that it was coordinating with EU antitrust authorities on the issue. Meta is already under investigation by the European Union in connection with one of several antitrust lawsuits against major U.S. tech companies, including Google and Apple.
As previously reported, CryptopolitanGoogle was fined 2.95 billion euros earlier this year in an advertising case in which the European Union claims the tech giant abused its dominant position. The incident is seen as one of the biggest punishments for the city of Brussels.
In the same month, Meta was also fined €200 million for breaching its obligation to give consumers the choice of services that use less personal data.
Violations of EU antitrust rules can result in fines. As much as 10% of the company’s annual revenue. There is reportedly no end date set for the antitrust investigation in this latest case, but previous cases have been going on for years.
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