Following regulatory scrutiny, Meta has confirmed that the third-party LLM ban on WhatsApp won’t apply to users in Italy and Brazil. Here are the details.
Ban could also be reversed across the rest of the EU in the coming weeks
Last October, Meta announced that companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity would not be allowed to use WhatsApp’s Business API to have the app work as a lightweight interface for conversations.
This ban, which takes effect today, doesn’t apply to LLM-based chats for situations such as customer support. Instead, it’s aimed exclusively at companies that had been using WhatsApp as a replacement, or alternative, to their own chatbot services, such as the main ChatGPT interface.
While many may see little reason to use ChatGPT through WhatsApp instead of the official app, others feel more comfortable interacting through a familiar interface, treating ChatGPT like a regular contact in their chat list.
In addition, in many countries (including Brazil), mobile carriers exempt WhatsApp from monthly data caps, making it an especially convenient option.
Following Meta’s ban announcement last October, Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) launched an investigation and concluded in late December that the move was anticompetitive, ordering Meta to reverse the ban:
According to the Authority, Meta’s conduct appears to constitute an abuse, since it may limit production, market access or technical developments in the AI Chatbot services market, to the detriment of consumers. Moreover, while the investigation is ongoing, Meta’s conduct may cause serious and irreparable harm to competition in the affected market, undermining contestability. Therefore, the Authority has ordered Meta to immediately suspend the WhatsApp Business Solution Terms in order to preserve access to the WhatsApp platform for Meta AI’s competitors.
Now, on the same day the ban went into effect, Meta confirmed it would also exclude Brazil from the move, following a preventive measure imposed by CADE, the country’s competition watchdog. CADE also opened an administrative inquiry into WhatsApp’s new terms, and will decide on next steps after completing its investigation.
There is also an ongoing investigation in the EU, which could extend the ban exemption beyond Italy, depending on what the European Commission finds.
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