EU Declares War on Big Tech's AI Empire With Full-Chain Antitrust Crackdown

Brussels Takes Aim at the Full AI Stack

The European Union is mounting its most ambitious antitrust offensive yet against Big Tech's dominance in artificial intelligence. Competition commissioner Teresa Ribera used a keynote address at a major international competition conference in Berlin this week to warn that dominant technology firms risk entrenching their power across every layer of the rapidly growing AI sector.

The enforcement effort spans the entire AI value chain, from the chips that power AI systems to the cloud platforms that host them, the models trained on vast datasets, and the consumer-facing applications that deliver AI to billions of users.

A New Kind of Enforcement

EU officials have described the approach as a strategic pivot. Rather than focusing solely on exclusionary conduct like self-preferencing and bundling, regulators are now also targeting exploitative abuses, where dominant companies impose unfair terms on businesses and consumers simultaneously.

This dual approach is already playing out in live cases. Google faces an investigation over its use of web publishers' content to train AI models and power its AI Overview search features, with regulators examining whether the company imposed unfair terms on content creators. European publishers have filed formal complaints alleging Google exploits their work without fair compensation while blocking rival AI developers from accessing the same material.

The WhatsApp Standoff

Meta is under pressure over its decision to restrict third-party AI assistants from operating on WhatsApp. After the Commission warned of interim measures to prevent serious harm to competitors, Meta announced it would allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp for a fee over a twelve-month period. However, competitors have called the pricing structure burdensome, arguing that per-message fees make it just as impossible to operate on the platform as the previous outright ban.

Wider Implications

Nvidia faces scrutiny over potential bundling of its dominant GPU products with networking equipment, while Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are being assessed for possible gatekeeper designation under the Digital Markets Act. Ribera has maintained her enforcement stance despite criticism from the Trump administration, insisting the effort is about well-functioning markets, not politics.