The European Commission has launched a formal investigation against Meta for alleged anti-competitive practices related to the integration of artificial intelligence in WhatsApp. The European regulator is examining whether Mark Zuckerberg's company is using its dominant position in instant messaging to favor Meta AI, its own assistant, to the detriment of external providers. This inquiry comes shortly after WhatsApp incorporated Meta AI on over 2 billion active devices, without offering alternatives like ChatGPT or Gemini. Margrethe Vestager, the EU's Competition Commissioner, emphasized that "dominant platforms cannot exclude their rivals from the market." Authorities suspect that Meta imposes technical barriers that prevent other AI companies from operating within WhatsApp, which could artificially limit user choice and violate European competition regulations. Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have filed formal complaints, alleging that Meta restricts their access to the platform while promoting its own assistant. According to internal data cited by Bloomberg, Meta AI manages over 700 million monthly conversations on WhatsApp, answering questions, generating images, and translating messages, without users being able to opt for other systems. The blue Meta AI icon was added without the option for complete deactivation, which has drawn criticism from those who prefer the traditional experience. Meta defends that its integration enhances privacy by processing data locally, although competitors like Google question this argument. If the European Commission determines that Meta has abused its position, the company could face fines of up to 28 billion euros, equivalent to 10% of its annual global revenue, which reached 280 billion dollars in the last year. Additionally, Brussels could require Meta to allow the integration of external AI services in WhatsApp, similar to the case with Google and Android, which resulted in fines exceeding 4.3 billion euros and mandatory changes to the operating system. The investigation could last between 18 and 24 months, during which Meta will need to justify that its technical restrictions are based on legitimate security reasons and not anti-competitive practices. Meanwhile, rival companies are intensifying pressure for equitable access to the world's most widely used messaging platform.