Published on
The European Union on Thursday ordered Google to share data with rival search engines and open up its Android operating system to competing AI services.
“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.
However, the US tech giant warned that the measures would put users’ privacy at risk.
The order was issued under the EU’s flagship Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires the world’s biggest tech companies to open up to competition in a bid to give users more choice.
For example, the EU said Android users should be able to choose their preferred AI chatbot for voice commands, similar to the “Hey Google” feature.
The DMA has been strongly criticised by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which accuses Brussels of unfairly targeting American companies.
Privacy concerns
The EU said requiring Google to share search data would help “rebalance the playing field”, but the company argued the measures would “introduce unprecedented risks to user privacy, device security, and national security.”
Google’s head of global affairs, Kent Walker, said the EU moves risked “undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans.”
Walker argued that 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 measures are legally binding under a procedure launched in January, although they are not part of a formal investigation that could lead to fines.
Google could nevertheless face further action. 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 percent of a company’s total global turnover for violating the DMA.
Brussels hit the company with fines worth a total of 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019 under different competition rules.
In September last year, the EU imposed a €2.95 billion fine in a separate antitrust case.