BRUSSELS, Feb 9 (Reuters) – EU competition regulators on Monday charged Meta ​Platforms with breaching antitrust rules ‌by blocking artificial intelligence rivals from its ‌messaging service WhatsApp and threatened to impose interim measures against the U.S. tech giant.

The move by the European ⁠Commission came ‌after Meta implemented its policy on January 15 allowing only ‍its AI assistant Meta AI on WhatsApp.

The EU executive, which acts as the ​EU antitrust watchdog, said it ‌had sent a statement of objections or charge sheet to Meta for violating the bloc’s rules.

“The Commission therefore intends to impose interim measures to ⁠prevent this policy ​change from causing serious ​and irreparable harm on the market, subject to Meta’ s ‍reply and ⁠rights of defence,” it said in a statement.

Its decision on interim ⁠measures will depend on Meta’ s reply ‌and rights of defence.

(Reporting by ‌Foo Yun Chee)