<div id="readability-page-1"><div>By Adria Calatayud The Italian Competition Authority said it ordered WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms to suspend a policy that excludes rival artificial-intelligence chatbots from the messaging platform. The authority, known as AGCM, said Wednesday that the decision stems from an investigation, which remains underway, into the integration of Meta's own AI service into WhatsApp. The AGCM said that Meta's conduct might harm competition, and that its order seeks to preserve access to WhatsApp for the tech company's AI competitors while the probe continues. Meta said it would appeal the decision that it called fundamentally flawed, adding that the emergence of AI chatbots on its business application programming interface put a strain on its systems that they weren't designed to support. &#34;The Italian authority assumes WhatsApp is somehow a defacto app store,&#34; a Meta spokesman said. &#34;The route to market for AI companies are the app stores themselves, their websites and industry partnerships; not the WhatsApp Business Platform.&#34; The AGCM in July opened an investigation to assess whether AI features Meta rolled out on WhatsApp amounted to an abuse of a dominant position. It broadened the scope of the probe in November to include a change in WhatsApp's business terms excluding general purpose AI chatbots from the platform, and said the company's new rules could call for interim measures. The authority said Wednesday that the conditions for adopting interim measures had been met. &#34;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,&#34; the AGCM said. The Italian regulator said it was coordinating with European Union antitrust officials on the issue. Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires12-24-25 0457ET</div></div>

Italy Watchdog Orders Meta to Allow Rival AI Chatbots in WhatsApp -- Update

- 意大利競爭管理局要求 Meta 暫停排除競爭對手 AI 聊天機器人的政策。  
- 調查顯示 Meta 可能損害競爭，影響 AI 公司訪問 WhatsApp。  
- Meta 計劃上訴，稱其政策旨在保護系統穩定。

意大利監管機構命令 Meta 在 WhatsApp 中允許競爭對手的 AI 聊天機器人——更新