Google takes the EU to court over orders to open Android to rival AI assistants and to share search data

Google has appealed two European Commission decisions under the Digital Markets Act to the EU General Court in Luxembourg. Its counsel, Slaughter and May, says the Android appeal “was lodged at the EU General Court on 28 September”; Google announced the appeals on 29 September.

Both decisions were adopted on 16 July 2026. The first sets out how Google must open 11 Android features relevant to AI services to rival assistants, on the same terms as its own. The main measures must ship in Android 18 by 1 August 2027 at the latest, and concurrent hotword detection, which lets several assistants answer their own wake words, is due in Android 19 by 1 August 2028. The second decision makes Google share anonymised search data with rival search engines: the dataset is due by November 2026 and the pricing offer by January 2027.

Oliver Bethell, Google's senior director for competition, said, as AFP reported: “We're appealing decisions that will force us to share people's private search history without sufficient anonymisation”. He said the orders would also weaken security protections on Android, AFP reported.

The Commission says it will defend the orders, Silicon UK reported. DuckDuckGo, which stands to gain from the data sharing, said, according to Silicon UK: “The only thing an appeal buys Google is time.”

• Confirmed The Commission adopted the Android AI interoperability decision on 16 July 2026, covering 11 features, with the main measures due by 1 August 2027. European Commission DMA portal
• Confirmed The search-data decision requires the anonymised dataset by November 2026 and the pricing offer by January 2027. European Commission DMA portal
• Confirmed Google's Android appeal was lodged at the EU General Court on 28 September, its counsel Slaughter and May says. Slaughter and May
• Claimed Google says the orders would force it to share search history without sufficient anonymisation, AFP reported. AFP (Citizen Digital)