EU ruling: Google must open Android & AI services to competitors
Google must offer competing providers of artificial intelligence services the opportunity to be used as alternatives to Google’s own AI assistant Gemini. The EU Commission now wants to enforce this.
Google needs to open up its ‘open operating system’
After Opinion of the European Commissionwhich is also responsible for enforcing competition law in Europe, Google is overly restricting the ability of competitors to offer their own AI services on Android. Key Android functions are accessible to Gemini, but not to alternative products from competitors, it is said. According to the EU, as part of the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google must now make changes to Android that open up the operating system for in-depth integration of competing AI services.
Apparently the main thing is that not only Gemini can be used as an “agentic AI” on the devices. Under pressure from the EU, Google should now begin passing on data relating to the optimization of its search engine to third-party providers. This also means that the US technology giant uses its data to give other providers the opportunity to optimize their chatbots with the information. The data should be passed on in an anonymous form, with the methods used being checked by an independent body.
Google now has to implement the EU’s new requirements within one year. Initially, the company has until January 2027 to start passing on certain search data to the competition, before opening Android to rival AI apps must be implemented by July 2027. Google responded to the EU’s new, legally binding requirements the expected rejection. The company said the requirements will jeopardize fundamental measures protecting the security and privacy of millions of Europeans.
The opening of Android will lead to lower security of users’ devices, it said. Google even went so far as to claim that forced sharing of data from its search engine would “endanger national security.” It has so far remained unclear whether Google wants to take legal action against the EU’s requirements, but this is quite likely.
