Brussels targets Google’s flagship services. The US giant will also have to share data from its search engine with competitors.
Say you want to book a taxi on your Android phone. Your AI assistant reaches into your apps, reads your context, and acts on your behalf. The problem is, it is only the Google Assistant that can do this smoothly. Any rival product, no matter how clever, hits a wall. It lacks the access. From July 2027, that changes.
The European Commission issued two sets of legally binding orders to Google on 16 July 2026, under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The first forces Google to open up its Android operating system to rival AI assistants. The second forces it to share search data with competing search engines. Together, the measures target the two most powerful levers Google uses to keep users inside its ecosystem.
Opening the phone
Sixty per cent of EU users carry an Android device. Until now, third-party AI assistants on those phones could not match what Google’s own Gemini could do. Not because they were less capable, but because Google controlled the underlying access. Rivals could not respond to voice commands the way “Hey Google” does, could not act inside apps, and could not draw on a user’s recent activity to offer relevant suggestions.
The Commission’s first order ends that asymmetry. Users will be able to set a rival assistant as their default and wake it with a voice command. They will be able to ask it to book a taxi, suggest a reply in a chat app, or recall a recently visited place. The Commission says robust safeguards will protect user privacy, device integrity, and security throughout.
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Critics are not fully convinced. Analysts warn that the technical challenges of integrating third-party assistants into Android could slow implementation considerably. Others argue that compliance costs, like navigating new protocols and privacy requirements, may fall hardest on smaller developers, the very companies the measures aim to help. There are also concerns that Google, with its unmatched engineering resources, will find ways to maintain its advantage even within the new rules.
The Commission’s timeline is firm regardless. Google must implement the Android changes by July 2027. The orders are legally binding and subject to independent judicial scrutiny, though the specification proceedings that produced them carry no fines.
Sharing the data that matters
The second order addresses search. Google Search enjoys an advantage that no rival can replicate through effort alone: the sheer volume of data it collects from billions of queries. That data—on what users search for, what they click, and what they ignore—is what makes a search engine smarter over time. Rivals have been unable to close the gap partly because they simply do not have enough of it.
From January 2027, Google must share that data with eligible third-party search engines, including AI chatbots that offer search functions. Critically, Google must share the same data it uses to improve its own services, not a watered-down version. The Commission worked with internal and external privacy experts to design a multi-layered anonymisation method, aligned with joint guidelines from the Commission and the European Data Protection Board. Google may assess, before sharing, whether a specific recipient poses serious cybersecurity or data-protection risks.
Some observers remain sceptical. Critics point out that anonymised data carries its own risks: there are well-documented cases of re-identification, and the effectiveness of the Commission’s method remains untested at scale. Others question whether data access alone can dislodge Google’s dominance, arguing that user habit and brand loyalty (not just data) explain why people keep using Google Search.
What Brussels is really trying to do
Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition Teresa Ribera framed the orders in straightforward terms. “Society is going through a profound digital transformation,” she said. “We need to keep that process fair and ensure that our citizens have choice. Our decision will help smaller competitors, search engines, or AI assistants, to compete and provide that choice, while protecting the user’s privacy.”
Our decision will help smaller competitors, search engines, or AI assistants, to compete and provide that choice, while protecting the user’s privacy. — Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition
Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen was equally direct about the ambition. “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. All developers, large and small, are welcome to explore these new opportunities, which will certainly benefit users too,” she said.
The legal basis for both orders is the DMA, under which the Commission designated Google’s core platform services (Search, Play, Maps, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Shopping, and online advertising) as subject to regulation in September 2023. Google has been required to comply with all applicable DMA obligations since March 2024. The two specification proceedings that led to today’s orders opened in this past January.
A test for the DMA itself
The orders carry no fines. Specification proceedings clarify how an obligation must be met; they do not determine whether Google has already broken the rules. Separate non-compliance investigations could follow if Google fails to implement the measures on time or in good faith.
That distinction matters. The DMA is still a young instrument, and its credibility depends on whether its orders produce real change in markets, not just legal compliance on paper. The Commission has reserved the right to amend the anonymisation requirements as market conditions evolve, based on independent third-party evaluation. That flexibility is prudent. It is also an implicit acknowledgement that the outcome is not guaranteed.
The deeper concern, one that critics raise and that Brussels does not fully answer, is structural. Google’s position in search and mobile rests on network effects, brand recognition, and years of accumulated data. Access rules and data-sharing mandates can lower barriers. Whether they can produce genuine competition is a question that January 2027 will only begin to answer.
