Google Faces EU Order to Share Search Data With Rivals

The European Union (EU) wants Google to make its data available to rival search engines.

Proposed measures announced Thursday (April 16) by the European Commission, the EU’s competition regulator, would let other search engines see the tech giant’s search data, including ranking, query, click and view data.

The goal is to let third-party online search engines, or “data beneficiaries,” optimize their search services and contest Google’s position in the search market, the commission added.

“Data is a key input for online search and for developing new services, including AI,” European Commission Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition Teresa Ribera said in a news release.

“Access to this data should not be restricted in ways that could harm competition. In fast-moving markets, small changes can quickly have a big impact. We will not allow practices that risk closing markets or limiting choice.”

According to the release, the proposed measures, under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), cover issues such as the eligibility of data beneficiaries to receive search data, including that of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots that have search functions.

The measures also cover the scope of the data Google must share and the “means and frequency” by which Google must share it, as well as measures to make sure personal data is anonymized, the commission added.

“Hundreds of millions of Europeans trust Google with their most sensitive searches — including private questions about their health, family, and finances — and the Commission’s proposal would force us to hand this data over to third parties, with dangerously ineffective privacy protections,” Clare Kelly, Google’s senior competition counsel, said in a statement to PYMNTS.

“We will continue to vigorously defend against this overreach, which far exceeds the DMA’s original mandate and jeopardizes people’s privacy and security.”

Google also argued that it had already launched a DMA-compliant anonymized dataset for rivals to use its data and expertise to build competing search products, and that this solution was already working.

The commission says it will collect input on the proposal before imposing a final decision by July 27.

Google is also reportedly dealing with scrutiny from the commission into whether the company had distorted ad auction mechanisms in a manner that may have driven up costs for advertisers. The company is facing fines of at least 9.5 billion euros ($11.2 billion) due to alleged antitrust issues in the region.