Google Challenges EU DMA Rules Over Android and Search Data

Google is taking its fight with European regulators to court.

The company has filed a legal challenge against two European Commission decisions adopted under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The measures target two areas that sit at the heart of Google’s ecosystem: Android and Google Search.

The first dispute concerns Android and the way competing AI assistants can interact with certain operating-system features. The second involves Google Search and whether rival search engines and AI-powered search services should receive access to certain data generated through Google’s search platform.

Google formally challenged the European Commission’s decisions before the General Court of the European Union on September 28, 2026.

The case could have significant consequences for how Europe’s DMA rules are applied to major technology platforms—and for how much access Google’s competitors receive to the company’s ecosystem.

Why the EU Is Targeting Google Search

Google Search occupies a unique position in the European search market.

According to the European Commission, Google has maintained a market share of more than 90% in general search services in Europe for many years. That enormous scale provides Google with an important advantage: billions of searches generate vast amounts of information that can be used to improve search quality and develop new products.

The DMA is designed in part to address advantages of this kind.

Under the European Commission’s approach, Google must provide eligible competitors with access to certain search-related data, subject to conditions and safeguards.

The information can include data associated with:

• Search queries
• Clicks
• Search result impressions
• Rankings
• Other information generated through interactions with Google Search

The objective isn’t to hand Google’s competitors its search algorithm or proprietary technology.

Instead, regulators want rival services to gain access to useful data that could help them improve their own search products.

That could be particularly significant for newer AI-powered search engines and chatbots, which increasingly compete with traditional search engines for users.

Google Raises Privacy Concerns Over Search Data

Google’s legal challenge also puts privacy at the center of the dispute.

Search queries can reveal highly sensitive information about a person. Someone’s searches may relate to medical conditions, financial problems, relationships, political interests, or other deeply personal subjects.

Google argues that forcing it to provide search-related information to competitors could create privacy and security risks if the data isn’t sufficiently protected.

However, the European framework does not simply require Google to hand over individual users’ complete search histories.

The DMA’s data-sharing requirements include safeguards intended to reduce the possibility of identifying individual users. Direct identifiers must be removed, while certain unusual or highly specific queries may also need to be excluded or modified.

Recipients of the data are also subject to restrictions designed to prevent them from attempting to identify individual users or redistributing the information.

The European Commission can also require auditing and other safeguards as part of the process.

That leaves the court with a difficult balancing act: how can regulators give competitors access to useful search data without creating unacceptable privacy risks?

Android Is the Other Major Battlefield

The second part of Google’s legal challenge concerns Android.

European regulators want competing AI assistants to have access to certain Android capabilities under conditions that make it easier for them to compete with Google’s own AI assistant, Gemini.

This reflects a broader shift in the technology industry.

AI assistants are no longer simply chatbots that answer questions. They are increasingly designed to interact with applications, retrieve information, perform actions, and operate across different parts of a device.

That makes operating-system access increasingly important.

If Google’s Gemini can interact deeply with Android while competing assistants have significantly fewer capabilities, competitors could face a structural disadvantage.

The EU’s approach seeks to reduce that gap.

Why Google Says Android Access Could Be Risky

Google’s argument is more complicated on Android because increased access to system capabilities can also create security concerns.

An AI assistant with extensive permissions may potentially interact with applications, files, communications, settings, and other sensitive parts of a smartphone.

Google has therefore argued that expanding access for third-party AI assistants could expose sensitive Android capabilities without necessarily providing the same security controls available to Google’s own services.

The European Commission, meanwhile, maintains that its requirements include protections for privacy, security, and device integrity.

This creates one of the central questions in the dispute.

How much should Android be opened to competing AI assistants without weakening the security model of the operating system?

The answer could influence how AI assistants operate on smartphones well beyond Google’s own products.

The DMA Is Reshaping Google’s Ecosystem

Google’s legal challenge is part of a much broader transformation in how the European Union regulates major technology companies.

The Digital Markets Act gives regulators additional tools to address practices involving companies designated as “gatekeepers” because of their significant role in digital markets.

Google is not the only technology company affected by the legislation, but its combination of a dominant search engine, the Android operating system, advertising services, cloud products, and AI tools makes the company’s ecosystem particularly important to the DMA’s enforcement.

The latest dispute illustrates how European regulators are attempting to address two different types of competitive advantages.

The first is data.

Google Search has accumulated an enormous amount of search-related information over decades. Regulators want competitors to have access to certain categories of that information under controlled conditions.

The second is platform access.

Android provides Google with control over an operating system used by billions of devices. Regulators want competing services to have meaningful opportunities to operate within that ecosystem.

What Happens Next?

Google’s challenge now moves the dispute into the European Union’s judicial system.

The courts will have to consider Google’s objections to the Commission’s implementation of the DMA and determine whether the challenged measures comply with EU law.

The outcome could have implications beyond Google.

If the measures survive, they could establish a stronger precedent for requiring major platforms to provide competitors with access to data and operating-system capabilities.

If Google’s arguments succeed in whole or in part, the European Commission could be required to modify how those obligations are implemented.

For consumers, the consequences could eventually become visible in everyday technology.

On Android, users could see more AI assistants gaining deeper access to system features. In search, competing engines and AI services could gain access to additional data that helps them develop and refine their products.

At the same time, the privacy and security safeguards surrounding that access will remain a critical part of the debate.

Google vs. the EU: A Bigger Battle Over AI and Data

Google’s latest legal challenge highlights a much larger issue facing the technology industry.

As AI assistants become more capable, data and platform access are becoming just as important as the underlying AI models. Companies that control operating systems, search engines, app stores, and huge datasets have advantages that newcomers can struggle to reproduce.

The EU’s DMA is attempting to reduce some of those barriers.

Google, meanwhile, is challenging how far regulators can go in forcing a private platform to open its data and infrastructure to competitors.

The court proceedings will therefore be closely watched by Google, AI companies, search competitors, and other technology platforms operating in Europe.

The immediate dispute may involve Android and Search, but the broader question is much bigger: how open should the digital platforms powering the AI era be?