The European Commission, which is investigating Meta for abuse of a dominant position in the WhatsApp messaging system, has sent an injunction to the Californian company. The EU executive has transmitted to Meta a supplementary statement of objections in which it expresses its intention to order Meta to restore third-party virtual assistants’ access to WhatsApp on the same terms that applied before the policy change of 15 October 2025.

This action comes despite the changes Meta announced on 4 March 2026. It represents a further step in the Commission’s provisional measures procedure within the investigation into a potential abuse of dominance by Meta, through restricting third-party virtual assistants’ access to its messaging app WhatsApp.

Today’s move follows an earlier statement of objections sent on 9 February 2026, in which the Commission set out its preliminary view that Meta had breached EU antitrust rules by excluding third-party virtual assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp.

In its communication today, the Commission assessed Meta’s decision to restore access to WhatsApp for third-party virtual assistants but subject to a fee. The Commission preliminarily found that this policy is effectively equivalent to the prior access ban. According to the EU executive, Meta’s conduct “risks preventing competitors from entering or expanding in the fast-growing market for AI-based virtual assistants”.

Accordingly, the Commission will impose provisional measures to prevent the policy changes from causing “serious and irreparable harm” to the market, while preserving Meta’s rights of defense. The provisional measures will remain in effect until the Commission concludes its investigation and reaches a final decision on Meta’s conduct.

In a separate decision, carried out in cooperation with the Italian Competition Authority, the Commission today also extended its investigation to Italy. As a result, the Commission’s conclusions will now apply across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). Italy had previously been excluded from the Commission’s probe because the Italian antitrust authority had opened its own investigation into the matter.