Google appeals the EU order to share search data with rivals

Google said on 29 September 2026 that it is appealing two European Commission decisions under the Digital Markets Act. One requires it to share search data with competitors, the other covers Android. The same week, Search chief Nick Fox repeated Google’s case in an interview.

What does the Commission require?#

The Commission’s page on the proceedings says its decision was adopted on 16 July 2026. Under Article 6(11) of the DMA, Google must share anonymised ranking, query, click and view data with eligible online search engines, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. The page says this includes AI chatbots that offer search.

What does Google say?#

Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition, said Google is appealing decisions that “will force us to share people’s private search history without sufficient anonymization” and weaken security protections on Android. Search Engine Roundtable reports a January 2027 deadline for sharing search data and July 2027 for the Android changes.

What did Nick Fox say?#

Interviewed in Brussels on 21 September and published on 25 September, Fox said the changes make him feel terrible, and that Google has removed features such as real-time flight pricing and searching by trip dates. He also said:

• Google has “had to pull back on spam protection” in Europe, so users see lower-quality results.
• Handing queries to competitors, typically not European companies, would not enable European competition in a meaningful way.

The spam remark connects to Google’s earlier site reputation policy split along the EEA border.

Do people still click through?#

Asked about zero-click searches, Fox said that is not what Google is seeing: people still click through a lot, and Google sends billions of clicks to the web from Search and from its AI experiences. He gave no figures beyond that, and the interview is Google’s own account.

What is not known yet?#

The General Court has not ruled, and a Commission response to the appeal is not in the sources we read. The Commission page does not mention the appeal. Until a ruling, the decisions’ deadlines remain Google’s to meet or contest, and we cannot say whether any suspension applies.