New to this? Read it in simple words
- The EU told Google to let rival AI assistants use Android phones as easily as Google’s own Gemini.
- It also told Google to share search data with rival search engines.
- Google has asked an EU court to stop these orders.
- Google says sharing the data could hurt people’s privacy.
- Digital Markets Act
- An EU law that sets rules for the biggest tech platforms so rivals can compete.
- Interoperability
- When products from different companies can work together.
- Anonymised data
- Data changed so it cannot be linked back to a person.
Under the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission can tell the largest tech platforms exactly how to open up to rivals. In July it did so for Google, twice. On September 28, Google went to court.
What the orders require
The first decision covers 11 Android features that are almost exclusively available to Gemini today. They include always-on voice activation, screen automation and on-device models.
Google must open them to rival AI services in Android 18, and by August 1, 2027 at the latest.
The second decision makes Google share anonymised search data with rival search engines, and AI chatbots that offer search can receive it too. The Commission set a multi-layered method to anonymise the data and a formula for its price.
Dates from the Commission’s decisions and Reuters’ report on the appeal.
Google’s case
Google filed its challenges at the EU General Court in Luxembourg on Monday, September 28.
“We’re appealing decisions that will force us to share people’s private search history without sufficient anonymisation and weaken vital security protections on Android,” said Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition.
“People use Search for their most personal questions,” he said, and sharing them without adequate safeguards “would cause irreversible harm to user privacy”.
The other side
The Commission said it will defend its decisions in court, and that both carefully consider security and the protection of users’ personal data.
DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine, backed the Commission: “The anonymization framework is robust and no amount of manufactured doubt changes that. The only thing an appeal buys Google is time.”
About 60% of EU users have an Android device, the Commission says.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Research · September 29, 2026Google challenges EU orders to open up to AI, search-engine rivals Reuters
- 2Primary source · July 16, 2026Commission provides guidance to Google for AI interoperability on Android and sharing of Google Search data under the Digital Markets Act European Commission
- 3Primary source · Accessed September 29, 2026Alphabet specification proceedings - Interoperability for AI services European Commission
- 4Research · September 29, 2026Google Takes the EU to Court Over Android and Search Data Demands Android Headlines (relaying Bloomberg)
What the orders require comes from the Commission’s own pages. The quotes from Google, the Commission and DuckDuckGo are as Reuters reported them.
Google sues to block EU orders opening Android to AI rivals. Silicon AI News, September 29, 2026. https://siliconainews.com/stories/google-eu-dma-appeal
Google went to court against EU orders to open Android and share search data, starting a legal fight over privacy and competition. How we rate the mood
The mood shows how the news frames the event for the tech and AI world: as an opportunity (6 and above) or as a loss (below 5). It is not our verdict on who is right.