Google challenges EU orders to open up to AI, search-engine rivals

Alphabet's Google has contested two EU orders that would require the company to assist AI competitors like OpenAI in accessing its services and search engine rivals to gain access to its search data. Google argues that these orders would infringe upon privacy protections and cause significant harm to European users. In July, EU antitrust regulators issued the orders under the Digital Markets Act, a set of rules intended to curb the dominance of Big Tech.

Google's appeal to the EU's General Court, Europe's second-highest court, underscores the escalating dispute between the tech giant and EU regulators over the Digital Markets Act's extent. Google's senior director of competition, Oliver Bethell, stated that compliance with the orders would require sharing private search history without adequate anonymization and weaken Android's security measures.

The European Commission, responsible for enforcing the DMA, maintains that the measures include sufficient safeguards for user privacy, device integrity, and security. DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused internet search engine, supports the EU's stance, asserting that the anonymization framework is robust and any appeals by Google would merely grant it additional time.