Google has taken its fight with European Union regulators to court over measures that would require the technology company to open parts of its Android operating system to competing artificial intelligence providers and give rival search services greater access to data.
The Alphabet unit said Tuesday that it had appealed the European Commission’s decision at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg, arguing that the measures could put users’ security and privacy at risk.
The dispute is part of a wider confrontation between Google and European regulators over the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s sweeping set of rules governing large technology companies. The legislation requires major digital platforms to change certain business practices and give competitors greater access to services and data.
Google says the latest requirements could force it to share highly sensitive information generated by users’ searches.
Google warns about personal search data
Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director for competition, said the company was particularly concerned about requirements involving search information.
“People use Search for their most personal questions,” Bethell said, citing subjects ranging from medical concerns to close relationships.
He argued that requiring Google to share such queries without adequate safeguards could cause serious and lasting damage to user privacy.
Google’s objection comes as regulators seek to make it easier for competing artificial intelligence services and search providers to operate alongside the company’s own products.
Search data has become increasingly important as AI companies develop chatbots that can answer questions, retrieve information and provide responses that traditionally would have required users to visit a search engine.
The EU’s approach seeks to prevent Google from using its position in search and mobile operating systems to restrict access for competing services.
EU pushes for greater access to Android
The European Commission told Google in July that users must be able to activate their preferred AI assistant through voice commands within 12 months.
The requirement could affect how people interact with AI assistants on Android devices, where Google currently operates one of the world’s largest mobile platforms.
Instead of limiting users to Google’s own services, the EU wants Android to provide a more open environment in which rival AI assistants can compete for users.
The commission has also set out plans concerning access to search data.
By January 2027, third party search engines are expected to receive access to search data that Google Search can currently collect at scale. The measure is particularly relevant to AI chatbots, which increasingly depend on large volumes of information to develop and improve their services.
For Google, the issue goes beyond competition between search engines. The company argues that search queries can reveal deeply personal information about the people who make them.
A user searching for symptoms of an illness, asking about a personal relationship or looking for advice about a sensitive issue may reveal information that they would not ordinarily share with another company.
Google says any system requiring such information to be made available to competitors must therefore include strong safeguards.
Digital Markets Act faces repeated court challenges
Google’s appeal is not unusual under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
Most of the European Union’s decisions under the legislation have faced legal challenges from major technology companies seeking greater clarity over how the rules should apply to their products and services.
The DMA was introduced to place additional obligations on the largest digital platforms and prevent them from using their market position to limit competition.
Google has already faced significant financial penalties from the European Commission in separate competition cases.
The company was previously hit with a €1 billion fine over competition related issues, while other EU enforcement actions have targeted its search and advertising businesses.
The latest dispute, however, centres on changes regulators want Google to make to its products rather than simply imposing a financial penalty.
EU seeks changes without formal infringement case
The commission’s latest procedure stopped short of a formal infringement case against Google.
Instead, regulators used the process to put pressure on the company to modify aspects of its services and bring them closer to the requirements established under the Digital Markets Act.
The approach reflects the EU’s broader effort to ensure that major technology platforms comply with rules designed to increase competition.
For Google, compliance could mean making technical changes to Android, opening access to information that has traditionally remained within its own services and adjusting how users interact with AI assistants.
The company has challenged those requirements because it believes some of them could create new security and privacy risks.
The case will now move into the European Union’s judicial system, where Google is asking the General Court to examine the commission’s decision.
AI competition adds new pressure to Google
The dispute comes at a time when competition in online search is changing rapidly.
For years, Google Search dominated the traditional search market, with users entering queries into a search box and receiving pages of links and other information.
AI chatbots have introduced a different model. Instead of presenting a list of results, they can generate direct answers, summarise information and respond to follow up questions.
That shift has increased the value of search data and raised questions about whether established search companies should be required to provide competitors with access to information generated through their services.
European regulators see greater access as a way to give emerging competitors a fairer opportunity to develop AI products.
Google, however, argues that search information can contain private details about individuals and should not be treated simply as a commercial resource that competitors can access.
The disagreement places privacy concerns directly alongside the EU’s competition objectives.
Trump administration criticises EU digital rules
The EU’s digital regulations have also become a point of tension between Brussels and Washington.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has criticised the Digital Markets Act and other European technology regulations, arguing that they disproportionately affect American companies.
Google, Apple, Meta and other major US technology companies operate extensively across the European market and have faced increased scrutiny under the bloc’s digital rules.
The Trump administration has described some EU measures as discriminatory toward American businesses.
European officials have continued to defend the rules as necessary for regulating powerful digital platforms and protecting competition within the bloc.
The dispute involving Google therefore extends beyond the company and the European Commission. It forms part of a wider argument over how governments should regulate large technology companies while AI development accelerates.
Google faces a changing regulatory environment
The General Court case could provide further clarity on how far the European Union can require a major technology platform to open its services and data to competitors.
The outcome could also affect the practical development of AI assistants and search services across the European market.
Google has made clear that privacy will be central to its legal challenge. The company argues that personal search queries cannot be shared with competitors without safeguards capable of protecting users from potential harm.
European regulators, meanwhile, are seeking to prevent Google’s control over Android and search from limiting competition from rival AI and search providers.
As the legal battle moves forward, the central question will be how the EU balances access for competing AI services with the privacy protections Google says its users expect.
Will the court require Google to open more of its Android and search ecosystem, or will privacy concerns force European regulators to revise the scope of their demands?