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Google Asks EU Court to Halt Order Opening Search Data to Rivals

By  |  October 1, 2026
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Alphabet’s Google is asking a European Union court to temporarily block a regulatory order requiring it to provide search data to competitors, escalating a legal confrontation over rules designed to loosen the grip of dominant technology platforms.

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    Google filed a request for interim relief with the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg after challenging the European Commission’s order, according to Reuters. The court is the bloc’s second-highest judicial body.

    The dispute centers on an EU requirement intended to give competing search providers and artificial-intelligence services greater access to data associated with Google Search. The European Commission issued the order in July as part of its enforcement of the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s sweeping framework aimed at limiting the market power of large technology companies, Reuters reported.

    Google argues that implementing the requirement before its legal challenge is resolved could expose European users to significant privacy risks. A company spokesperson told Reuters that the circumstances warranted interim measures because Google believes the provision at issue could cause serious harm to users’ privacy.

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    The Commission has rejected the suggestion that its approach disregards those concerns. According to Reuters, the EU executive, which also serves as the bloc’s competition enforcer, has said its measures account for security and system integrity while requiring protection of end users’ personal information.

    Related: Google Takes EU Data-Sharing Orders to Court in Escalating DMA Fight

    The legal fight highlights the growing tension between European regulators’ efforts to foster competition in digital markets and Google’s contention that opening parts of its ecosystem can create new security and privacy vulnerabilities.

    Google had already moved to challenge EU measures concerning both search data and access for competing AI services. In its earlier appeal, the company argued that the requirements could force it to share sensitive search information without sufficient anonymization and weaken protections built into Android, according to Reuters reporting published Sept. 29.

    For Brussels, broader access is intended to make it easier for alternative search engines and AI developers to compete with Google and expand the choices available to consumers and businesses. For Google, the case raises a different question: how far regulators can require a dominant platform to open its data and services when the company says doing so may compromise safeguards protecting users.

    The request for an interim suspension adds another layer to that dispute. If granted, it would temporarily halt the contested data-sharing requirement while Google’s underlying challenge proceeds through the EU judicial system.

    Source: Reuters