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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The European Commission has started proceedings to ensure Google complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in certain ways. Specifically, the European Union’s executive arm has told Google to grant third-party AI services the same level of access to Android that Gemini has. "The aim is to ensure that third-party providers have an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices," the Commission said in a statement.
The company will also have to hand over "anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search" to rival search engines. The Commission says this will help competing companies to optimize their services and offer more viable alternatives to Google Search.
"Today’s proceedings under the Digital Markets Act will provide guidance to Google to ensure that third-party online search engines and AI providers enjoy the same access to search data and Android operating system as Google's own services, like Google Search or Gemini," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. "Our goal is to keep the AI market open, unlock competition on the merits and promote innovation, to the benefit of consumers and businesses."
The Commission plans to wrap up these proceedings in the next six months, effectively handing Google a deadline to make all of this happen. If the company doesn't do so to the Commission's satisfaction, it may face a formal investigation and penalties down the line. The Commission can impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company's global annual revenue for a DMA violation.
Google was already in hot water with the EU for allegedly favoring its own services — such as travel, finance and shopping — over those from rivals and stopping Google Play app developers from easily directing consumers to alternative, cheaper ways to pay for digital goods and services. The bloc charged Google with DMA violations related to those issues last March.
In November, the EU opened an investigation into Google's alleged demotion of commercial content on news websites in search results. The following month, it commenced a probe into Google's AI practices, including whether the company used online publishers' material for AI Overviews and AI Mode without "appropriate compensation" or offering the ability to opt out.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Deep Blue on Monday February 02 2026, @05:43PM (4 children)
That's the wrong way! Ban all FI (Fake Intelligence) from accessing any of it!
(Score: 2) by Bentonite on Tuesday February 03 2026, @01:49AM (2 children)
Unfortunately, bans usually don't work against things that are the most harmful (just see how well banning harmful drugs has gone).
Although, I agree that the EU should instead be investigating such (minor) crimes against humanity and prosecuting those responsible (privacy is a human right and to infringe human rights is a crime against humanity), rather than encouraging such acts.
(Score: 2) by Deep Blue on Tuesday February 03 2026, @04:58PM (1 child)
It does for companies that follow the laws, and in this case, Google would be liable for a big stack of money for not following the ban, so i think it'd work.
But i do agree, that bans are something to be used carefully and with consideration.
(Score: 2) by Bentonite on Wednesday February 04 2026, @12:14AM
Google doesn't really follow laws if inconvenient to do so and they can just make customers pay for any fines by increasing prices, thus I don't think bans that don't have execution of the business as the remedy could possibly work.
(Score: 2) by Damp_Cuttlefish on Tuesday February 03 2026, @11:57AM
My initial feeling was "Bollocks, a gargantuan fresh attack surface in a widely deployed piece of software".
But then I realised they were doing that anyway, but just for them. Hopefully if this goes through it will force them to think a little harder about their security model and not lean so hard on "The google AI wouldn't do anything bad, right?"