Italy has ordered WhatsApp to lift its ban on third-party chatbots connecting to the platform.

 

WhatsApp has updated its terms of service, stating that creating accounts that use the Business API to directly connect to AI chatbot services is prohibited, as it violates the intended use. This condition does not affect general customer service accounts that use chatbots to answer questions, but it impacts chatbot providers that add WhatsApp as a communication channel, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others.

The Italian competition authority, AGCM, stated that it had sufficient information during its investigation of Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, regarding the alleged unfair advantage created by these terms of service. Because only Meta AI chatbots could still be connected, while others could not, the authority ordered Meta to revoke the restriction.

Meta denied the allegations, stating that the Business API was not designed to support chatbots. Regarding the anti-competitive aspect, they argued that users can still access other chatbots through other channels, not via WhatsApp. They also viewed the authority's comments as a significant misunderstanding, as they mistakenly viewed WhatsApp as a marketing channel for AI chatbot companies.