The European Union has ordered Google to share search data with competing search engines and make its Android operating system more accessible to rival artificial intelligence services, in the bloc’s latest move to rein in Big Tech dominance. The directive, issued on Thursday, was made under the EU’s flagship Digital……
The European Union has ordered Google to share search data with competing search engines and make its Android operating system more accessible to rival artificial intelligence services, in the bloc’s latest move to rein in Big Tech dominance.
The directive, issued on Thursday, was made under the EU’s flagship Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation designed to increase competition among major technology companies and give consumers greater choice.
Brussels said Google would be required to begin sharing search data with rival search providers from January 2027, while changes aimed at opening Android to competing AI services would take effect from July 2027.
The decision marks another regulatory challenge for the US technology giant as the European Commission continues efforts to curb the influence of the world’s largest digital platforms.
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Google, however, criticised the measures, warning that the requirements could undermine user privacy and create security risks.
The DMA has become a source of tension between Brussels and Washington, with US President Donald Trump’s administration accusing the European Union of unfairly targeting American technology companies through its digital regulations.
The EU maintains that the rules are intended to ensure fair competition and prevent dominant platforms from limiting consumer choice or restricting access for smaller rivals.
“Thanks to these measures we hope to see emerging alternatives to Google Search and Google’s AI services, such as Gemini, and that users in the EU can enjoy greater choice of services,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said.
For example, the EU said Android phone users should be able to use their preferred AI chatbot via voice commands, similar to the “Hey Google” command.
The EU said sharing search data would “rebalance the playing field” but Google pushed back, saying the measures “introduce unprecedented risks to user privacy, device security, and national security”.
But Google’s head of global affairs Kent Walker said the EU moves risked “undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans”.
He said AI assistants already could access Android and by sharing search data, “Europeans’ private searches would be exposed to unfamiliar companies, without adequate anonymisation of the data and without user knowledge or consent”.
A senior European official insisted the EU “took integrity, security and privacy into utmost account”, and Brussels said the decision would ensure anonymisation of search data.
The demand is legally binding as part of a procedure launched in January, but it is not a formal probe that could lead to fines.
The scrutiny of Google does not end there, however.
The EU could hit Google with a fine next week in a separate investigation under the DMA law, sources close to the matter told AFP, confirming a report in the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday.
The EU has the right to slap fines of up to 10 per cent of a company’s total global turnover for violating the DMA.
Fines are nothing new for Google.
The EU hit the company with fines worth a total of 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019 under different competition rules. And in September last year, Brussels imposed a 2.95 billion euro fine in a separate antitrust case.
AFP
