EU pushes Google data access

The European Union has told Google to open parts of its search data to rivals, including artificial intelligence chatbots with search features. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) On April 16, the European Commission sent Google preliminary findings under the Digital Markets Act, the European Union law that sets conduct rules for the biggest online platforms. The proposed measures say Google should share ranking, query, click and view data with third-party search engines on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The Commission also said the data access should cover artificial intelligence chatbots that have search functionality, not just classic search rivals. Reuters reported that this would extend the remedy to products that depend on search-like retrieval to answer users’ questions. (reuters.com) Search data is the feedback loop that shows what people asked, which links they clicked, and which results they ignored. The Commission said access to that anonymised data would help other search providers improve their services and offer alternatives to Google Search. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) The case sits inside Article 6(11) of the Digital Markets Act, which requires designated “gatekeepers” to give rival online search engines access to ranking, query, click and view data. The Commission is the sole enforcer of that law and opened these compliance proceedings against Google on January 27, 2026. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu, digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) Google said it would fight the proposal. Reuters quoted Clare Kelly, Google’s senior competition counsel, saying the measures overreached and would put users’ privacy at risk. (reuters.com) The Commission has opened a public consultation on the proposed measures starting Friday, April 17. Interested parties are being asked to comment on whether the package is effective, complete and realistic to implement. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The January proceedings notice said the Commission planned to conclude this process within six months of opening it. That puts the next formal decision point around late July 2026, unless the timetable slips. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) The fight is over who gets to use the signals generated by Google’s search engine, and whether those signals must also feed the next wave of search-like artificial intelligence tools. The Commission’s draft answer is yes, if those tools function as search. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu, reuters.com)