EU orders Google to open Android and Search to AI rivals

Brussels just handed down two decisions that could fundamentally reshape how AI assistants and search engines operate on the world’s most popular mobile platform. The European Union is compelling Google to give rival AI assistants and search engines comparable access to Android and Google Search data, a move that directly targets the company’s tight integration of its Gemini AI.

The rulings, part of technical proceedings under the Digital Markets Act, don’t come with a fine—at least not yet. Instead, they force operational changes. Google has until January 2027 to begin sharing search click and query data and until July 2027 to implement the Android changes. If it doesn’t comply, the European Commission can levy penalties up to 10 percent of Alphabet’s global annual turnover, a figure that reaches into the tens of billions of dollars.

The Android decision is particularly pointed. It mandates that Google allow users to choose a rival assistant—ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity—and grant it the same deep system access Gemini enjoys, including the ability to interact with apps, respond to wake words, and tap into device hardware. On the Search front, the EU said the data-sharing requirements explicitly cover AI chatbots that function as search engines, echoing remedies from the U.S. antitrust case but with a generative AI twist.

Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, fired back in a blog post, arguing the decisions “risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails” and that the EU “discount extensive evidence of user harm.” Regulators countered that they’ve built in limits on data usage and a vetting process for Android access. The political subtext is hard to miss here. These rulings offer a clear signal about how Brussels might handle similar interoperability demands for Apple, which already cited the DMA when it shelved Siri AI’s launch in Europe. Whether this actually spurs a wave of innovation or tangles the market in compliance fights and privacy loopholes—that’s the open question.