EU Gives Google Six Months to Open Up Android and Search to Rivals

The European Commission (EC) announced today that Google has six months to open up Android to rival AI services. The Commission also instructed the online giant to open up online search data to rivals. Both demands are tied to Google’s obligations under the EU Digital Market Acts (DMA) regulations.

“The first set of proceedings concerns Google’s obligation under Article 6(7) of the DMA to provide third-party developers with free and effective interoperability with hardware and software features controlled by Google’s Android operating system,” the EC announcement explains. “The second set of proceedings concerns Google’s obligation under Article 6(11) of the DMA to grant third-party providers of online search engines access to anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (‘FRAND’) terms.”

For the first of these obligations, the Commission says that it “intends to specify how Google should grant third-party AI service providers equally effective access to the same features as those available to Google’s own services.” EC executive vice president Teresa Ribera describes the requirement as a way to level the playing field and not tilt it to favor the largest few companies in the world.

As for the search requirement, the EC is focusing on the scope of data, the anonymization method, the conditions of access, and the eligibility of AI chatbot providers to access the data. “Effective compliance and access to a useful dataset will allow third-party providers of online search engines to optimize their services and offer users genuine alternatives to Google Search,” it says.

In each case, the Commission says that it will inform Google how it should implement these changes within three months and then require Google to formally implement them within six months. If Google doesn’t comply, it will face formal investigations and potential fines of up to 10 percent of its annual revenues, the EC notes.