Italy’s competition regulator has launched a formal investigation into Meta, alleging the U.S. tech giant may have abused its dominant position by pre-installing its artificial intelligence service, Meta AI, into WhatsApp.
The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) said the probe, opened in cooperation with the European Commission, will examine whether Meta’s decision to embed its chatbot into WhatsApp constitutes an abuse of dominance under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
Since March 2025, Meta has made Meta AI automatically available within WhatsApp, displaying the service prominently through an icon and integrating it directly into the app’s search bar. The AGCM said this strategy could allow Meta to “impose” the use of its AI assistant on WhatsApp’s vast user base — estimated at 37 million in Italy and more than 120 million across Europe — without users explicitly requesting it.
According to the authority, the tying of WhatsApp with Meta AI risks locking users into Meta’s ecosystem and limiting competition from rival AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. The regulator warned that user interactions with Meta AI may also be used to train the system, potentially strengthening Meta’s advantage further and creating functional dependence among consumers.
AGCM officials, assisted by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza Antitrust Unit, carried out inspections at Meta’s Italian subsidiary, Facebook Italy S.r.l., on Monday.
The authority highlighted concerns that Meta could leverage its dominant position in the messaging app market to gain an unfair advantage in the fast-growing AI chatbot market. “By pre-installing Meta AI, millions of WhatsApp users instantly became potential Meta AI users — not through competition on the merits, but by being presented with a service they did not actively seek,” the regulator said.
The investigation must be concluded by December 31, 2026. Meta, which reported global revenues of €152 billion in 2024 (with €35.4 billion in Europe), has not yet commented on the probe.
