Google has filed legal challenges against two EU orders that would require it to give AI developers and search-engine rivals access to its services and search data. The company argues the orders, issued under the Digital Markets Act, would strip away privacy safeguards and cause irreversible harm to European users.
Google filed its challenges to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest court, on Monday, contesting two EU orders issued in July. The orders directed Alphabet's Google to help AI developers such as OpenAI use services available to its Gemini model, and to give search-engine competitors access to its search data under rules known as the Digital Markets Act.
Google says compliance would harm user privacy
Google's senior director of competition, Oliver Bethell, said the company is appealing decisions that would force it to share people's private search history without sufficient anonymisation and weaken security protections on Android.
He added that people use Search for personal questions, from medical worries to close relationships, and that sharing those queries without adequate safeguards would cause irreversible harm to user privacy. The changes at the center of the dispute are set to kick in next year.
The Commission defends its decisions
The European Commission, which enforces the Digital Markets Act, said it took note of Google's legal challenge and that it will defend its decisions in court. A Commission spokesperson said the two specification decisions carefully consider the integrity and security of the features involved, as well as the protection of users' personal data.
DuckDuckGo, a US-based search engine that does not track users' search history or personal data, backed the EU watchdog's position. According to Reuters: "The only thing an appeal buys Google is time."
The dispute escalates a broader clash between Google and EU regulators over how far the Digital Markets Act's competition rules should reach into the company's core search and AI products.
Source: Investing.com/Reuters
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