Africa’s most powerful regional competition authority has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms, targeting a policy change that blocks rival artificial intelligence providers from the WhatsApp Business API while preserving full access for Meta’s own tool. The COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission issued Notice of Investigation 1 of 2026 on February 17, covering all 21 member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and setting a March 16 deadline for stakeholder submissions.
- The COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC) formally opened its probe on February 17, 2026, following a complaint filed on January 5 by AdLegal International, a Uganda-based competition advocacy group whose executive director Aziz Kitaka described the action as part of efforts to hold tech giants accountable while operating in African markets
- The investigation centres on changes Meta made to its WhatsApp Business Solution Terms on October 15, 2025, which ban businesses from using the WhatsApp Business API if their primary service is a third-party AI chatbot or assistant; existing AI providers were given until January 15, 2026 to comply, while new providers were cut off immediately from October 2025
- Meta AI, the company’s own AI assistant rolled out to WhatsApp users in late 2025, retains full access to the platform under the new terms, a fact the CCCC says gives Meta a structural competitive advantage by locking rivals out of a distribution channel while its own product benefits from unrestricted access
- CCCC Chief Executive Dr Willard Mwemba stated the commission has reasonable cause to suspect Meta holds a dominant position across the COMESA Common Market and that the WhatsApp API amendments are likely to substantially lessen competition by excluding AI service providers from a crucial gateway to their customers
- The investigation is grounded in Regulation 36 of the COMESA Competition and Consumer Protection Regulations 2025, which came into force late last year and prohibits the abuse of a dominant position in the common market; the probe marks one of the first major tests of the revamped regulatory framework against a global technology company
- The COMESA action is part of a coordinated global response: the European Commission issued a formal Statement of Objections to Meta on February 9 describing the policy as a breach of EU competition rules at first sight, Italy’s competition authority ordered an emergency suspension of the policy in December 2025, and Brazil’s antitrust body initially suspended the terms via injunction before Meta successfully appealed and overturned that ruling on January 23
- For African tech startups, the stakes are concrete: WhatsApp is the dominant messaging and commerce platform across the 21 COMESA member states, which include Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and Zambia, and blocking third-party AI from the API effectively severs local developers from their most critical customer distribution channel
- The CCCC stressed that launching the investigation does not presuppose wrongdoing, and that it will examine Meta’s conduct and its effects before reaching any conclusion; if a violation is found, remedies could include ordering changes to WhatsApp’s terms, imposing fines or requiring interoperability with third-party AI systems
- Stakeholders and interested parties across all COMESA member states are invited to submit written representations to the commission by March 16, 2026, with submissions to be treated confidentially; contact for the process is Tatenda Zengeni, Manager of Anticompetitive Practices at the CCCC
The timing and architecture of Meta’s WhatsApp AI policy deserve scrutiny beyond the competition law question. Meta AI launched on WhatsApp in late 2025, and within weeks the company amended its business terms to cut off rival AI providers from the same platform. The sequencing, new provider restrictions in October 2025 and existing provider restrictions from January 2026, mirrors the period of Meta AI’s rollout closely enough that regulators on three continents have found it worth investigating. Meta’s formal defence in parallel proceedings has centred on user privacy and platform integrity, arguing that general-purpose AI chatbots pose security and data risks that justify the restriction. That argument has not yet persuaded any regulator to close its inquiry. For Africa specifically, the practical effect of a closed WhatsApp AI ecosystem falls hardest on companies building localised services in local languages for SME clients who use WhatsApp as their primary business communication tool. A Nairobi startup building a Swahili-language agricultural advisory bot, or a Lagos fintech deploying a Hausa-language customer support assistant, relies on API access that Meta has now unilaterally removed.
The Bigger Picture: The COMESA investigation is the most significant assertion of African digital sovereignty in the technology sector to date. Competition enforcement against global platforms in Africa has historically been reactive and slow, and the CCCC’s decision to issue Notice of Investigation 1 of 2026 within six weeks of the AdLegal complaint signals an institution that is operating at a pace and confidence level not previously seen from African regulators in tech cases. The commercial stakes are substantial. WhatsApp reaches hundreds of millions of users across the 21 COMESA member states and has become foundational infrastructure for e-commerce, financial services and customer support across the region. If Meta can unilaterally rewrite API access rules to advantage its own AI products without consequence, it establishes a precedent that any dominant platform can use its gateway position to foreclose emerging competitors in adjacent markets. If the CCCC finds a violation and imposes meaningful remedies, it will signal to every global technology company operating across Eastern and Southern Africa that the continent’s regulators have both the legal tools and the institutional will to enforce fair market rules. The March 16 stakeholder deadline is the next moment to watch, followed by whatever interim measures the commission may consider before reaching a final finding.
Source: African Law and Business | People Daily | Techish Kenya
