According to the British Financial Times, the EU is planning to launch a new antimonopoly investigation into Meta’s use of the Artificial Intelligence “Meta AI” system in its Immediate Communications Application. According to informed sources, the EU has plans to announce the launch of an investigation within the next few days, but the timing may still be adjusted.
The antimonopoly investigation will be based on the traditional antimonopoly law rather than the Digital Market Act (DMA). DMA is a landmark EU legislation aimed at curbing the dominance of large online platforms, but it has become a particular target of criticism by the Trump Government. Meta initially delayed access to the AI function because of Europe’s “complex regulatory system” and finally integrated the AI function into the WhatsApp in European countries last March. This feature is designed as an AI assistant in an application chat, which provides tips and supports the generation of additional text. The Italian antimonopoly agency has investigated Meta ‘ s alleged use of market dominance to integrate AI into WhatsApp without the consent of the user. Last month, the Italian authorities extended the investigation to the new provisions of the WhatsApp Business News Service and the AI function, arguing that these changes “may limit the production, market access or technological development of the AI chat robot services market”. The spokesperson for Meta refused to comment on the forthcoming European Union investigation and cited earlier statements regarding the Italian investigation as “ungrounded”. Meta states: “The latest update does not affect tens of thousands of enterprises that provide customer support and send relevant updates, nor does it affect the choice to use their own AI assistants to communicate with clients.”
This EU survey followed recent surveys initiated under the Digital Markets Act: a survey on the sequencing of results of Google parent media searches in Alphabet and a survey of Amazon and Microsoft Cloud Calculator Services. The European Commission stressed that digital regulation would continue despite the risk of potential retaliation in Washington and continued criticism by the United States. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg of Meta has lobbied the Trump government to believe that the European Union ‘ s cumbersome regulation will keep the region behind the United States and China in the AI competition. The President of the United States, Mr. Toran, has publicly opposed the regulatory rules against the American technology giant, following his meeting with Zuckerberg and his lobby team. Last month, the United States Minister of Commerce, Howard Lutnik, stated in his visit to Brussels that the EU must liberalize science and technology. The European Commission’s action coincided with Meta’s previous attempt by the United States Federal Council to force Meta to divest itself of the takeovers of WhitsApp and Instagram, a few weeks after she won the United States antimonopoly suit. The United States judge in this case ruled that Meta did not have a monopoly power because it still had to compete with services such as Google YouTube and TikTok.
