Google appeals to EU court over orders to open Android AI and share search data

Alphabet's Google has opened a new legal front in its long-running battle with European Union regulators, filing two appeals at the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg on September 28, 2026. The appeals target a pair of specification decisions that the European Commission issued on July 16, 2026 under the Digital Markets Act, the bloc's signature rulebook for reining in the market power of large technology platforms.

The two decisions, if they survive the challenge, would require Google to hand competing artificial intelligence assistants access to core Android features and to share anonymised search and click data with rival search engines and AI chatbots. Google argues the mandates would expose users' most personal queries and weaken the security of the Android operating system, while the Commission insists the measures contain robust privacy and security safeguards and says it will defend them in court.

Android runs on roughly seven out of ten smartphones worldwide, so the features at issue touch the daily experience of billions of device users. Google's Gemini assistant already enjoys privileged hooks into the operating system, including the ability to listen for a wake word with the screen off, read what is on screen, and act inside other apps by simulating taps and typing. Rival assistants such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity cannot do those things, and the DMA orders are designed to erase that gap.

The company's challenge lands at Europe's second-highest court and escalates a confrontation over how far the DMA can go in forcing a dominant platform to interoperate with competitors. The deadlines at the centre of the dispute arrive in 2027, and Google's appeal does not automatically pause them. That timing, more than the legal reasoning, gives the case its urgency.

Key Facts

Reuters reported on September 29, 2026 that Google filed its challenges to the Luxembourg-based General Court on Monday, September 28. The filings contest two Digital Markets Act specification decisions the European Commission handed down on July 16, 2026. One order requires Google to open 11 Android features to competing AI assistants by August 1, 2027, a deadline tied to the next major Android release, Android 18. The features named in the order include the microphone, the camera, screen contents and wake-word detection.

The second order requires Google to begin sharing anonymised search and click data with rival search engines and AI chatbots from January 2027. StartupFortune reported on September 29, 2026 that the Commission built the search-data order around a specific anonymisation method, developed with input from data protection experts, meant to strip identifying signals before any query reaches a competitor. The Android order is framed as a parity measure: Gemini can already perform the advanced functions the order would extend to rivals, and the DMA is designed to close that gap.

Oliver Bethell, Google's senior director of competition, said in a statement that the company is appealing decisions that would force it to share people's private search history without sufficient anonymisation and weaken vital security protections on Android. People use Search for their most personal questions, from medical worries to close relationships, he said, and mandating that Google share those personal queries without adequate safeguards would cause irreversible harm to user privacy.

The European Commission said it took note of Google's legal challenge. A spokesperson said the Commission will, as always, defend its decisions in court and stressed that the two specification decisions carefully consider the integrity and security of the features involved as well as the protection of the personal data of end users. DuckDuckGo, the US internet privacy company whose search engine does not track users' search history or personal data, backed Brussels. A DuckDuckGo spokesperson said the anonymisation framework is robust and that no amount of manufactured doubt changes that, adding that the only thing an appeal buys Google is time.

Filing an appeal does not pause the Commission's orders. Under EU law, the January 2027 and August 2027 deadlines stand unless the General Court explicitly grants interim relief, which Google would need to request and win separately. The Business Times reported on September 29, 2026 that Google argues the compliance measures would undermine privacy safeguards and cause irreversible harm to European users, while the Commission says the two measures contain robust safeguards protecting the privacy of users, device integrity and security.

Analysis

What this really means is that the DMA has moved from rulemaking into enforcement litigation, and Google has decided that its strongest defence is not technical compliance but a courtroom argument about privacy and security. The company is not saying it cannot build the interoperability the Commission demands. It is saying the price in user trust and Android hardening is too high, and that the Commission has underweighted the risk of re-identification when search queries leave Google's systems.

Reuters reported on September 29, 2026 that the challenges escalate a clash between Google and EU regulators over the scope of the DMA, with the company arguing that compliance measures designed to open up competition would come at the cost of user privacy and security. That is a familiar Big Tech playbook, but it is not automatically a weak one. Search histories are among the most sensitive categories of personal data, and the Commission's own order depends on an anonymisation method that Google will now subject to judicial scrutiny.

The bigger picture here is that the case will test whether the DMA can compel a platform owner to treat rival AI assistants as first-class citizens on its own operating system. If Google loses, the default assistant on Android stops being a feature Google controls simply by owning the operating system. If Google wins, the Commission's effort to open the mobile AI layer could be delayed by years, and the January 2027 and August 2027 deadlines could slip well beyond the current schedule.

DuckDuckGo's intervention matters because it undercuts the idea that only Google cares about privacy. A company whose entire brand rests on not tracking users says the anonymisation framework is sound and that the appeal is a delay tactic. That does not settle the legal question, but it changes the political one, because Google now has to argue that a privacy-focused rival is wrong about privacy.

Why It Matters

The outcome will shape how quickly ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants can behave like native Android features. Those behaviours include listening for a wake word with the screen off, reading what is on screen, and acting inside other apps by simulating taps and typing. Gemini can already do those things, and rivals cannot. If the order stands, the fight for the default AI assistant on a phone stops being one Google can win just by owning the operating system.

It also determines whether search data flows from Google to competitors in the EU from January 2027. Rival search engines and AI chatbots argue that access to anonymised click and query data is the only realistic way to compete with Google's scale. Privacy advocates counter that even anonymised search histories can be revealing, and that the burden should be on the Commission to prove the safeguards work before the data moves.

For European users, the practical stakes are which assistant answers when they speak to their phone and how much of their search behaviour is shared with other companies. For regulators, the case is a test of whether the DMA's specification decisions can survive judicial scrutiny. For Google, it is a bet that privacy arguments travel better in Luxembourg than in Brussels.

Next Up

A General Court ruling typically takes well over a year, and Google can appeal further to the European Court of Justice. Reuters reported on September 29, 2026 that Google filed its challenges on September 28 and that the changes will kick in next year. Google would need to request and win interim relief separately to pause the January 2027 and August 2027 deadlines while the case proceeds.

The Commission said it will defend its decisions in court, and DuckDuckGo said the only thing an appeal buys Google is time. Unless the General Court grants that relief, the Android access and search data obligations remain on schedule, and the next major Android release, Android 18, will arrive with the August 1, 2027 deadline attached.