The European Commission issued two binding decisions on Thursday requiring Alphabet's Google to open its Android operating system to rival AI assistants and share search data with competing platforms. The rulings, the product of a six-month regulatory process under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), mark the most direct regulatory intervention yet into how artificial intelligence assistants compete on the world's most widely used mobile platform.

The DMA designates dominant technology platforms as 'gatekeepers' — companies with such structural power over digital markets that they require special obligations to ensure fair competition. Google was designated a gatekeeper in 2023, and the proceedings opened in January 2026 were designed to translate its existing obligations into specific, enforceable requirements.

What Google must now do

The first decision focuses on Android. According to CNBC, the Commission said Google must open 11 features of its Android operating system to rival AI developers, giving them access to the same system-level capabilities currently reserved for Google's Gemini assistant. In practice, this means users will be able to activate a competing AI service using voice commands, similar to the existing 'Hey Google' trigger, and use it to perform tasks such as booking travel or searching for local information. Those changes take effect in July 2027, with the next major Android release.

The second decision targets Google Search. Bloomberg reports that by January 2027, third-party search engines will be entitled to the same scale of search data that Google currently collects through its own services, including data generated by AI chatbots. This covers anonymised ranking, query, click, and view data, shared on what the Commission describes as fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The stated aim is to allow smaller search providers and AI-powered platforms to build more competitive products against Google's roughly 90% share of the global search market.

“'Today's decisions risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans,' Google's lawyer Kent Walker said in a statement.”

Google pushes back, a fine may follow

Google rejected both decisions. The company has consistently argued that opening Android's deepest system features to third parties raises serious privacy and security concerns, including the risk of de-anonymisation of search data by sophisticated AI models. The Commission said it has built robust safeguards into both decisions and that Google may screen potential data recipients for cybersecurity and privacy compliance before granting access. Apple, whose own AI strategy faces similar DMA scrutiny, has also voiced support for parts of Google's position, calling the Android interoperability proposals a 'privacy and security disaster' according to Tech Policy Press.

The rulings are not the only regulatory pressure bearing down on Google in Brussels. AFP reported that EU officials could issue a separate DMA fine against the company as early as next week, in a distinct investigation unrelated to Thursday's decisions. Under the DMA, fines can reach 10% of a company's total global annual turnover, rising to 20% for repeat violations. The EU previously fined Google a combined 8.2 billion euros in antitrust cases between 2017 and 2019, and imposed a further 2.95 billion euro fine in September last year.

“'Data is a key input for online search and for developing new services, including AI,' EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said earlier this year when the preliminary measures were announced.”

A template for the AI era

The decisions have significance well beyond Google's balance sheet. Android holds around 58% of Europe's mobile operating system market, meaning any AI assistant unable to achieve system-level integration on Android competes from a structurally weaker position across the continent. Companies including OpenAI could gain legally enforceable access to Android integration points currently exclusive to Gemini, including voice activation and the ability to read on-screen context. The pattern mirrors pressure already applied to Apple, which under DMA obligations began allowing EU users to set a default voice assistant other than Siri in iOS 26.2. Whether Google's changes succeed in genuinely opening up AI competition, or simply add compliance complexity without shifting market dynamics, will depend heavily on the technical detail of implementation in the months ahead.

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