The European Commission has published detailed compliance measures requiring Google to make sweeping changes to its search engine, Android operating system and app ecosystem, in one of the most far-reaching applications yet of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The measures, unveiled on July 15, require Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to grant rival search engines and artificial intelligence providers access to parts of its search data, while also making it easier for competing services to integrate with Android devices.
The Commission said the changes are intended to curb Google’s market power and ensure fair competition in Europe’s digital economy.
Under the Commission’s specifications, Google must provide rival online search engines with access to certain anonymised search query, click and ranking data on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
The rules also extend to providers of AI-powered search and assistant services that rely on search functionality to compete with Google’s products.
The Commission further ordered Google to improve interoperability on Android by allowing third-party applications, digital assistants and connected devices broader access to operating system functions that have traditionally been reserved for Google’s own services.
Device manufacturers must also receive greater freedom to pre-install competing search engines, browsers and AI assistants, while users should find it easier to switch default services without favouring Google’s products.
The measures form part of the Digital Markets Act, the flagship EU legislation designed to limit the power of so-called “gatekeeper” technology companies by preventing them from favouring their own services over competitors.
European Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said the rules were intended to “unlock innovation and choice” for businesses and consumers while ensuring that companies controlling key digital platforms could not leverage their dominant position to exclude rivals.
“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.” Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy said.
Google criticised the Commission’s approach, warning that mandatory data sharing could undermine user privacy and reduce incentives to invest in improving search products.
Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs, told Reuters: “Today’s decisions risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans.”
“We have repeatedly offered solutions to safeguard users while satisfying the DMA’s goals, but these rulings discount extensive evidence of user harm.”
In a reaction to Brussels Signal, Dirk Auer , director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, noted that the likely result is fewer AI assistants for Europeans, not more.
“There’s a difference between ensuring users can choose a different default assistant and forcing Google to hand every rival the deep system access it built for itself. Apple faced the same demand and decided to keep Siri AI off EU iPhones entirely. Google’s rational response will likely be to delay or degrade Gemini in Europe.”
Auer said that the Commission has the market backwards, noting that “Google is the challenger in the AI assistant market. ChatGPT holds roughly 70 per cent of EU chatbot usage, and Anthropic has risen faster than anyone over the past year. The decision strips a secondary player of its main differentiator, namely ecosystem integration, and tilts the field toward firms that never needed one.”
He also warned against uncontrolled agentic access, calling it “dangerous”.
“Assistants that read screens, simulate taps, and transact inside a user’s apps open the door to surveillance, credential theft, and unauthorised purchases. That risk is inherent to the capability and cannot be papered over by ordering Google to bolt on safety backstops.”
He said the Commission was applying only half of the Digital Markets Act. While the legislation expressly allows companies to take proportionate measures to protect security, Brussels was insisting Google first demonstrate “objective and verifiable evidence” of harm before doing so, he said.
“This will create tangible harms for Europeans. Europe has already seen Gemini’s AI Overviews, Meta’s Threads, and now Siri AI delayed or withheld over DMA obligations — a pattern of defensive levelling-down that leaves European users with less capable products than everyone else.”
Kay Jebelli, Vice President for Europe at the Chamber of Progress, focussed on the privacy risks in a reaction to Brussels Signal.
“The Commission is ignoring the known and well documented privacy risks to impose a vision of the digital economy, rather than working with industry to find solutions that are safe and supported by market demand. What this likely means is services will be pulled while legal challenges are mounted”, he said.
Daniel Friedlaender, Senior Vice President & Head of Office of CCIA Europe, said in a post on LinkedIn that the Commission is treating privacy and cybersecurity as “secondary implementation questions” in its enforcement of the Digital Markets Act.
He warned that “dogma risks overriding practical impacts.”
“Promoting competition and consumer choice are legitimate objectives, of course, but they should not override engineering reality and legitimate safety worries,” Friedlander said. “Having bureaucrats try to rewrite business practices without knowing the full extent of those impacts has always gone badly.”
Friedlander also warned that mandatory sharing of search queries and user interaction data could expose Europeans to new risks.
The latest measures come amid growing transatlantic tensions over EU digital regulation. US officials, including President Donald Trump’s administration, have repeatedly criticised Brussels’ enforcement of the DMA and Digital Services Act, arguing that the rules disproportionately target successful American technology firms while burdening innovation.
Millions of iPhone and iPad users across the European Union will miss out on Apple’s most significant upgrade to Siri in years, after the company confirmed that its new Siri AI features will not launch on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in the bloc. https://t.co/RsgShGfwQW
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 9, 2026
