EU threatens temporary measures to stop Meta blocking AI rivals from WhatsApp

BRUSSELS, Feb 09 (Reuters): EU competition regulators have threatened to stop Meta Platforms from blocking artificial intelligence rivals from its WhatsApp messaging service while it investigates suspected abuse of a dominant position by the US tech giant.

The European Commission said on Monday that it has sent a statement of objections, or charges, to Meta over violation of the bloc's rules and intends to impose interim measures to prevent serious and irreparable harm to rivals, mirroring moves by Italy's competition watchdog in December.

"We must protect effective competition in this vibrant field, which means we cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage," EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement.

"That is why we are considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing and avoid Meta's new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe."

Meta said there was no reason for the EU to intervene.

"There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites and industry partnerships," a Meta spokesperson said in an email.