Meta Hit by EU Warning to Open WhatsApp to Rival AI Chatbots
Speakers
Teresa Ribera
— European Union Competition Commissioner
Summary
European Union Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera discusses the EU's warning to Meta over blocking rival AI assistants on WhatsApp, potential interim measures, and the bloc's regulatory approach to US tech. She also comments on Google's ad-tech business, the EU's scrutiny of a possible Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery deal, and a probe into Chinese wind-energy subsidies.
- EU warns Meta over WhatsApp access for rival AI assistants and considers interim measures.
- Ribera defends EU enforcement as market competition and consumer protection, not politics.
- Google's ad-tech conduct remains under EU scrutiny, with remedies and US court decisions in focus.
- EU says it will monitor any Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery consolidation but has no operation to assess yet.
- EU investigates Chinese wind-energy subsidies to prevent dumping and protect the level playing field.
- Commissioner stresses open AI markets and opportunities for challengers to incumbents.
Ideas
EU warns Meta over WhatsApp AI access.
The EU competition commissioner warned Meta that blocking rival AI assistant providers from WhatsApp may be an abuse of dominance, and the EU is considering interim measures to prevent the removal of consumer options; this creates regulatory and forced-interoperability risk for Meta.
Google faces ongoing EU ad-tech scrutiny.
The EU is scrutinizing Google's ad-tech and gatekeeper conduct to ensure advertising negotiations across platforms are fair and not biased toward Google's own priorities; the process is ongoing and may lead to remedies aligned with US court decisions.
Up Next
This Bloomberg Markets video, published February 09, 2026, features Teresa Ribera discussing META, GOOG. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Teresa Ribera · Tickers: META, GOOG