Brussels has told Google to open up its search data and give rivals equal footing on its own platforms, sketching out how it expects the tech giant to comply with the bloc's competition rulebook.
In preliminary findings under the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission outlined proposed measures that would force Google to hand over key search data – including rankings, queries, clicks, and views – to rivals on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.
The aim is straightforward enough: give competing search engines, and even AI chatbots with search features, access to the kind of data they need to build services capable of taking on Google Search, rather than being locked out from the start.
"Today's decision sets out the specifications we expect Google to follow to comply with its obligations under the Digital Markets Act. Data is a key input for online search and for developing new services, including AI," said Teresa Ribera, executive vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.
"Access to this data should not be restricted in ways that could harm competition. In fast-moving markets, small changes can quickly have a big impact. We will not allow practices that risk closing markets or limiting choice."
Google, naturally, isn't impressed by the Commission's demands, which it says "far exceeded the DMA's original mandate."
"Hundreds of millions of Europeans trust Google with their most sensitive searches — including private questions about their health, family, and finances — and the Commission's proposal would force us to hand this data over to third parties, with dangerously ineffective privacy protections," Clare Kelly, senior Competition Counsel at Google, said in a statement to The Register.
"We will continue to vigorously defend against this overreach, which far exceeds the DMA's original mandate and jeopardizes people's privacy and security."
Google said the investigation appears to be driven "at least in part by OpenAI", which it claims is "seeking to take advantage of the DMA to harvest data from Google in ways not anticipated by the drafters of the DMA."
It also calls out the EC's plan to "mandate ineffective anonymization to increase data volume", arguing that this would trade off user privacy to satisfy the "unbounded demands of competitors."
For all of Google's complaints, the Commission is already laying out how this would work in practice – who qualifies for access, what data they get, how often it's handed over, and what Google has to do to strip out personal information, along with the terms governing access.
The Commission is asking for feedback, with responses due by 1 May, before locking in a binding decision by July 27, 2026. The outcome will decide exactly how much of Google's search data rivals get to see, and on what terms. ®
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