Alphabet’s Google has challenged two European Union orders requiring it to give artificial intelligence rivals access to its services and allow competing search engines to access search data.
Google filed the challenges on Monday at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest court, escalating its dispute with EU regulators over the scope of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The European Commission ordered Google in July to help online search rivals and AI developers access services available through its Gemini AI model under the DMA, which is designed to curb the market power of major technology companies.
Google argued that the measures, which are due to take effect next year, would undermine privacy and security protections and cause irreversible harm to European users.
“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,” Google’s Senior Director of Competition, Oliver Bethell, said in a statement.
“People use Search for their most personal questions — from medical worries to close relationships — and mandating we share these personal queries without adequate safeguards would cause irreversible harm to user privacy,” he said.
The European Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the DMA, has said the measures include safeguards to protect users’ privacy, device integrity and security.
Google’s legal challenge comes as the company and EU regulators remain divided over whether measures intended to promote competition can be implemented without compromising user privacy and security.
DuckDuckGo, a US-based internet privacy company, backed the EU regulator’s position, rejecting Google’s concerns over the anonymisation requirements.
“The anonymization framework is robust and no amount of manufactured doubt changes that. The only thing an appeal buys Google is time,” a DuckDuckGo spokesperson said.
Boluwatife Enome
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