EU Tells Google to Open Up Search Engine Data to Rivals -- Update

Published: 2026-04-16 08:51:47 ET GOOGL

Published on 04/16/2026 at 08:51 am EDT

By Edith Hancock

The European Union said it provided Alphabet's Google with guidance on how to open up its search data to competitors to bring the tech giant in line with the bloc's digital antitrust rulebook.

The EU competition watchdog opened proceedings into the search engine in January to instruct the company on how to comply with the bloc's Digital Markets Act. The EU said Thursday that it sent preliminary findings to the company, with a series of proposed measures that aim to give other search engines access to data such as ranking and queries.

The commission--the EU's executive arm--said the measures aim to allow competing engines to optimize their search services and contest Google Search's position in the market. They include telling Google the scope of the search data that it must share, measures to ensure personal data is anonymized and the types of entities that are eligible to receive that search data, including artificial-intelligence chatbots.

Teresa Ribera, the bloc's competition commissioner, said in a statement Thursday that data is a key input for online search and for new services such as AI. "Access to this data should not be restricted in ways that could harm competition," she said. "In fast-moving markets, small changes can quickly have a big impact," she said.

Google said in response that the commission's proposal would force the company to hand data from sensitive searches to third parties.

"We will continue to vigorously defend against this overreach, which far exceeds the DMA's original mandate and jeopardizes people's privacy and security," Clare Kelly, the company's senior competition counsel, said.

The watchdog said it aims to wrap up its proceeding with Google in July this year, setting a May 1 deadline to receive feedback on its proposals. It already issued guidance to Apple under a similar legal process in 2025.

The DMA sets out a list of do's and don'ts for the world's largest tech companies, which face fines of up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover for breaches of the law.

Write to Edith Hancock at [email protected]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-16-26 0850ET