The European Commission told Google on Thursday that its Android dominance comes with strings attached.
Under the Digital Markets Act, the Commission designated Google as a "gatekeeper" — a platform so entrenched it requires special obligations. Two new requirements follow from that status: rival AI assistants must be allowed to operate on Android on the same terms as Google's own Gemini, and Google must share some of its search data with competing services. The Commission issued both rulings on the same day.
The search data requirement is the sharper edge here. Google's search index is the moat that makes its AI products hard to replicate — opening even a portion of that data to rivals chips away at a structural advantage that no amount of model training can easily overcome. The Android AI access rule matters too, but distribution was already less locked down than search.
This is the DMA doing what it was designed to do: targeting the feedback loops that let dominant platforms stay dominant. Google is appealing similar DMA rulings elsewhere, so expect this one to be contested as well.