People walk behind a logo of Meta Platforms company, during a conference in Mumbai, India, September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms will exclude Italy from its ban on rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp following an order from the country's antitrust authority, according to a notice sent to AI providers and developers seen by Reuters.
The Italian watchdog AGCM last month ordered Meta to suspend its proposed ban while the watchdog investigates the company for suspected abuse of its market power following complaints from rivals. The European Commission too is probing Meta over whether it abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from its messaging service WhatsApp, but did not issue any interim order.
Blocking other AI providers' access to WhatsApp would give a potential boost to Meta's own chatbot and virtual assistant Meta AI integrated into the platform last year.
Meta, in its notice to AI providers and developers circulated early last week, said that phone numbers with an Italian country code are currently exempt from WhatsApp's updated terms of service, to comply with an order from Italian regulators. The updated terms come into effect on January 15.
Meta declined to comment on the updated terms of service and referred to a statement issued late last year which said that the emergence of AI chatbots put a strain on its systems that they were not designed to support.
The Italian antitrust authority declined to comment.
The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com and complained to both the Italian and EU competition regulators, criticised Meta's Italian carve-out.
"Meta's move to keep enforcing its new WhatsApp API policy - shutting out AI rivals like Poke.com while only carving out +39 numbers - is deeply disappointing," Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, told Reuters.
"The Italian authority has found Meta's conduct to be at first glance anti-competitive under EU law.Meta should have suspended the policy worldwide, not just in Italy. The (European) Commission must urgently follow Italy's lead and adopt interim measures," he said.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Susan Fenton)
