Geradin Partners secures landmark interim measures for Interaction in Meta AI / WhatsApp case
Geradin Partners has secured a significant victory in the European Commission’s antitrust investigation into Meta’s conduct on WhatsApp (Case AT.41034). On 9 June 2026, the Commission ordered Meta to restore free access to its WhatsApp for Business API for competing general-purpose AI assistants, and to maintain that access on pre-restriction terms until the conclusion of the investigation.
Jérémie Jourdan and his team in Brussels represented The Interaction Company of California (“Interaction”), the operator of Poke.com – a messaging-first AI assistant reaching users through the WhatsApp for Business API.
The Commission’s decision
The Commission found, prima facie, that Meta holds a dominant position in the EEA-wide market for consumer communication applications and has been abusing that position by excluding competing general-purpose AI assistants from the WhatsApp Business API. On 15 October 2025, Meta banned third-party AI assistants from the API, leaving only Meta AI accessible on WhatsApp. After the issuance of the statement of objections, Meta revised its policy on 4 March 2026 – but the Commission concluded that the fee introduced for third-party access was, prima facie, equivalent in practice to the previous ban.
The decision orders Meta to reinstate access for third-party AI assistants under the same terms and conditions that were in place before 15 October 2025, when such access was free of chargefor so-called service messages. Meta must comply within five working days.
This is only the second time the Commission has imposed interim measures under Regulation 1/2003, following the Broadcom case in 2019. The substantive investigation on the merits remainsongoing.
Jérémie Jourdan said:
“This is a decisive victory for Interaction and for competition in the AI assistant market more broadly. The Commission has recognised what we have argued since the outset: that Meta’s conduct – first an outright ban, then a prohibitive fee that functioned as one – was designed to foreclose the distribution channel that matters most for AI assistants in Europe. WhatsApp is the gateway to consumers across the EEA, and Meta was using its control of that gateway to protect Meta AI from competition. The Commission’s decision restores the competitive conditions that Interaction and other innovators need to operate, scale, and compete on the merits. We will continue to support our client in the ongoing substantive investigation, as well as in the parallel proceedings before other authorities, including Brazil’s CADE and the Turkish Competition Authority.”
The Interaction Company of California
The Interaction Company of California is a Palo Alto-based technology start-up founded in June 2024 by Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel. It develops and operates Poke.com, a messaging-first AI assistant that lives inside users’ existing messaging apps – such as WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage – connecting to their email, calendar and files to turn short text exchanges into concrete actions, without requiring a separate app or interface.
About Geradin Partners
Geradin Partners is an independent pan-European law firm specialising in competition law, litigation and digital regulation. The firm has extensive experience representing complainants in major antitrust investigations before the European Commission and national competition authorities, including in the landmark Google AdTech investigation, which resulted in a €2.95 billion fine, and in the Microsoft Teams case, which led to a far-reaching commitments decision. The firm advises companies across the digital ecosystem on all aspects of EU digital regulation, including the Digital Markets Act, the AI Act, and the Digital Services Act, combining deep competition law expertise with a practical understanding of how digital markets work.
More information about Geradin Partners can be found at: geradinpartners.com.
Contact:
Jérémie Jourdan: jjourdan@geradinpartners.com
Other team members: Daniel Mandrescu, Eirini Marnera
