EU starts proceedings to assist Google in complying with tech rules

The European Commission on Monday said it has started two sets of specification proceedings to assist Google in complying with its obligations under the Digital Markets Act. The specification proceedings formalize the Commission’s regulatory dialogue with Google on certain areas of its compliance with two DMA obligations. The first set of proceedings concerns Google’s obligation under Article 6(7) of the DMA to provide third-party developers with free and effective interoperability with hardware and software features controlled by Google’s Android operating system. Today’s proceedings focus on features used by Google’s own Artificial Intelligence services, such as Gemini. The Commission intends to specify how Google should grant third-party AI service providers equally effective access to the same features as those available to Google’s own services. The aim is to ensure that third-party providers have an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices. The second set of proceedings concerns Google’s obligation under Article 6(11) of the DMA to grant third-party providers of online search engines access to anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. These proceedings focus on the scope of data, the anonymization method, the conditions of access, and the eligibility of AI chatbot providers to access the data. Effective compliance and access to a useful dataset will allow third-party providers of online search engines to optimize their services and offer users genuine alternatives to Google Search. The Commission will conclude the proceedings within six months of their opening. Within the upcoming three months the Commission will communicate its preliminary findings to Google setting out the draft measures it intends to impose on Google to effectively comply with the DMA. Non-confidential summaries of preliminary findings and the envisaged measures will be published to enable third parties to provide comments.