The European Commission yesterday issued a binding decision under Article 6(11) of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), requiring Google to share anonymised search ranking, query, click and view data with third-party search engines.
The ruling comes into effective in January 2027.
Google controls approximately 89% of European search traffic (StatCounter/Statista, May 2025) and has been confirmed as a de facto monopoly by a US federal court. Since 2017, the European Commission has imposed fines totaling more than €8,2-billion on Google for competition law violations, every one of which has been appealed and delayed.
The obligation to share data under Article 6(11) DMA represents a fundamentally different approach: not punishment after the fact, but behavioural change to the conditions of competition.
By requiring Google to share anonymised query, click and ranking data with rival search engines on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, the Commission is providing European search companies with the raw material they need to improve the quality of their services and offer users a genuine alternative.
The decision is also fundamental for the future of European AI and thus a prerequisite for digital sovereignty. Search data is the primary training input for next-generation AI retrieval systems. A European AI industry built without access to European users’ actual search behaviour will remain permanently disadvantaged relative to US systems trained on Google’s data.
“Today the European Commission has shown both courage and clarity. For years, we have argued that fines alone cannot fix a monopoly – only behavioural or structural remedies can. This decision is precisely that: a behavioural remedy. Google will be required to share the ranking data that is indispensible for search competition and the foundation of European AI. We congratulate Commission Vice-Presidents Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen on their resolve, and are ready to put this ranking data to work for European users from day one,” said Dr. Wolfgang Oels, MD of search engine Ecosia.
“This is a decision that Europe’s citizens, businesses and democratic institutions have needed for a long time. Control over ranking data is a question of who controls European citizens’ and businesses’ access to information. It is indispensible for privacy friendly alternatives to Google to emerge. The Commission has understood this. We now call on Google to comply in good faith and in full, without the dilatory tactics and excessive anonymisation thresholds it deployed during the 2025 compliance workshops. The window for those games is closed,” says Boris Lecoeur, CEO of Qwant and European Search Perspective.