Key Takeaways
- Google has appealed EU orders to share its services with AI rivals and search competitors.
- The company argues these measures would harm user privacy and security.
- Alphabet's market capitalization reached $3 trillion for the first time.
Alphabet’s Google has challenged two EU orders aimed at opening up its services to artificial intelligence (AI) rivals and search engine competitors, arguing that these measures would undermine privacy safeguards and cause irreversible harm to European users.
The European Commission, which enforces the Digital Markets Act (DMA), ordered Google in July to facilitate access to its Gemini AI model and search data for online rivals, as part of broader competition rules.
Google filed its challenges to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest court, on Monday, stating that compliance would force the company to share people’s private search history without adequate anonymization and weaken security protections on Android.
In a statement, Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition, said, '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 argues that users use Search for their most personal questions, from medical concerns to close relationships, and that mandating the sharing of these personal queries without adequate safeguards would cause irreversible harm to user privacy.
The European Commission has stated that the two measures contain robust safeguards protecting the privacy of users, device integrity, and security.
DuckDuckGo, a US-based internet privacy company, backed the EU watchdog, stating that the anonymization framework is robust and that an appeal by Google only buys the company time.
Alphabet’s market capitalization reached $3 trillion for the first time, highlighting the company’s significant financial standing in the tech industry.
The challenges escalate a clash between Google and EU regulators over the scope of the Digital Markets Act, with the company arguing that compliance measures designed to open up competition would come at the cost of user privacy and security.
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.
Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition
The anonymization framework is robust and no amount of manufactured doubt changes that. The only thing an appeal buys Google is time.
DuckDuckGo spokesperson, US-based internet privacy company
