EU spells out how Google must share data with rivals

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Commission set out Thursday how it wants Google to make a wide range of data accessible to rival search engines in order to comply with the bloc’s digital rules.

The announcement forms part of amicable proceedings launched in January to ensure Google meets its obligations under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

“Google should allow third party search engines to access search data, such as ranking, query, click and view data, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms,” the EU executive said in a statement.

“The aim of the measures is to allow third party online search engines, or ‘data beneficiaries,’ to optimize their search services and contest Google Search’s position,” the commission added.

Under the proposed measures, Google would also be required to share data with AI chatbots with search functionalities, it said.

Under the EU’s powerful DMA, the world’s biggest tech companies must open up to competition to give consumers more options and limit abuses linked to market dominance.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s government has railed against the law and its sister content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, accusing Brussels of unfairly targeting U.S. firms.

The proposed measures will be subject to public consultation until May 1, after which the commission may make adjustments before reaching a final decision by July 27.

Google has pushed back at the commission move and on Thursday vowed to “vigorously defend” against what it qualified as “overreach” by EU regulators.

“Hundreds of millions of Europeans trust Google with their most sensitive searches — including private questions about their health, family and finances,” the firm’s senior competition counsel Clare Kelly said in a statement. “The commission’s proposal would force us to hand this data over to third parties, with dangerously ineffective privacy protections.”

The EU step is not a formal investigation that could lead to fines.

But if Brussels is not satisfied with Google’s efforts, it can later conclude the company is not complying.

Any DMA violations can lead to fines of up to 10% of a company’s total global turnover.

Google is already the subject of several formal DMA probes, and was hit with a massive 2.95 billion euro fine in September 2025 in an EU competition case predating the digital law.

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By Agence France-Presse