Google has challenged two major requirements imposed by the European Commission under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Under the measures, the company would have to make the Android operating system more accessible to competing AI assistants and provide eligible rival search providers with access to certain Google Search data. Google has appealed both decisions before the General Court of the European Union.
The case comes at a time when the distinction between AI chatbots and traditional search engines is becoming increasingly blurred.
The European Commission believes that changes to Android and Search are necessary to give competing services a greater opportunity to compete in the market. The Commission set out these requirements for Google in July.
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What Changes Are Proposed for Android?
Under the Android-related requirement, Google would have to provide competing AI assistants with deeper access to the operating system. A key part of the measure would allow users to activate their preferred AI assistant through voice commands. If implemented, Android users could choose an AI assistant other than Google’s Gemini as their preferred option.
This could mean that an Android user could select a service such as ChatGPT as their preferred assistant and activate it using a voice command. At present, Google’s own AI services have access to certain system-level capabilities on Android that competing services may not have to the same extent. The Commission’s requirement is intended to address that difference.
What Search Data Could Google Share?
The European Commission has also imposed a separate requirement concerning Google Search. By January 2027, eligible competing search providers are expected to receive access to certain Search data collected by Google at scale. Google processes a huge volume of search queries, giving it access to a large pool of information related to search behaviour and results.
The European Commission believes controlled access to some of this information could help smaller or emerging search providers compete more effectively. The issue has gained additional significance as AI-based services expand, with AI chatbots increasingly performing tasks such as finding information and answering questions that have traditionally been associated with search engines.
Why Is Google Raising Privacy Concerns?
Google, however, has raised significant privacy concerns over the requirement to share Search data. The company argues that people use Search to ask highly personal questions, including queries about health issues, personal circumstances and relationship problems. According to Google, sharing such information with other companies without adequate safeguards and anonymisation could expose users to serious privacy risks.
Oliver Bethell, a senior Google executive responsible for competition matters, has raised concerns that sharing sensitive Search queries without sufficient protections could cause harm to users that may be difficult or impossible to reverse. Google is now challenging the requirements through the European Union’s court system.
What Happens Next?
The Commission’s decisions do not mean that Google has been found to have violated these specific requirements. Rather, the measures set out how the company is expected to change certain aspects of Android and Search in order to comply with the DMA’s competition requirements.
Google’s legal challenge will now be considered by the General Court of the European Union. The court’s proceedings will determine how the Commission’s requirements are interpreted and implemented. The case also raises broader questions about competition among AI assistants, access to search data and the balance between market competition and user privacy.
Giving Android users greater choice of AI assistants could open the platform to more competition. But requiring access to Search data raises a separate concern. Any such system will need strong safeguards to ensure greater competition does not come at the cost of users’ sensitive search information.
About the author — Ayesha Aayat writes on cybercrime, digital safety, and emerging online threats. Her work focuses on public awareness, legal clarity, and technology-driven risks.
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