Italian regulators ordered Meta on Wednesday to open its WhatsApp chat platform to rival AI chatbots as it and EU authorities pursue a probe that the US tech giant is abusing its dominant market position.

Meta has integrated Meta AI across the company’s platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, that serve billions of users globally.

In October, Meta introduced new contractual conditions that will apply from 15 January that Italy’s competition regulator said “completely exclude Meta AI’s competitors from the WhatsApp platform in the AI Chatbot services market.”

Earlier this month, the European Commission opened an antitrust probe to determine if the way Meta is rolling out AI features in WhatsApp breaches the bloc’s competition rules.

Meta AI is a generative AI chatbot that can interact with users.

Such AI chatbots provide a new way for users to search for and obtain information and services, and thus can supplant browsers.

Locking WhatsApp’s more than three billion users into Meta AI could potentially give the company a commercial advantage over rival AI chatbots.

Italy’s competition regulator, which opened its probe in July, said that following a review of briefs submitted as part of the investigation that “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.”

It issued an interim order for Meta to suspend the terms and allow rival AI chatbots to use WhatsApp while its investigation continues.

The interim order is necessary as “Meta’s conduct may cause serious and irreparable harm to competition in the affected market,” it added.

The Italian regulator said it would coordinate with the European Commission “to ensure that Meta’s conduct is addressed in the most effective manner.”