BRUSSELS: Alphabet’s Google has challenged two European Union orders that would require it to help AI rivals such as OpenAI access its services and allow search engine competitors to access its search data, saying the measures would undermine privacy safeguards and cause irreversible harm to European users.
EU antitrust regulators ordered the U.S. tech giant in July to help online search rivals and artificial intelligence developers use services available to its Gemini AI model under the Digital Markets Act, rules aimed at reining in Big Tech.
The challenges escalate a clash between Google and EU regulators over the scope of the Digital Markets Act. Google argues that compliance measures designed to open up competition would come at the cost of user privacy and security.
The changes are set to take effect next year. Google filed its challenges Monday with the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest court.
“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, said in a statement.
“People use Search for their most personal questions, from medical worries to close relationships, and mandating we share these personal queries without adequate safeguards would cause irreversible harm to user privacy,” he said.
The European Commission, which enforces the DMA, has said the two measures contain robust safeguards protecting users’ privacy, device integrity and security.
DuckDuckGo, a U.S.-based internet privacy company known for its search engine that does not track users’ search history or personal data, backed the EU watchdog.
“The anonymization framework is robust and no amount of manufactured doubt changes that. The only thing an appeal buys Google is time,” a DuckDuckGo spokesperson said.
