DMA: EU decision nears on Google search data sharing

The European Commission is expected to conclude by late July 2026 how Google must open its search data to competitors under the Digital Markets Act. The specification proceedings, opened on 27 January with a six month deadline, would give rival search engines and AI chatbots with search functionality access to anonymised ranking, query, click and view data. For European brands, the outcome decides who else gets to build search products on top of the data their locations generate.

What happened

The Commission opened two specification proceedings against Google’s parent Alphabet on 27 January 2026. One covers interoperability under Article 6(7), requiring Google to give third party developers access to Android features used by its own AI services such as Gemini. The other covers Article 6(11), which obliges Google to share search data with third party search engines on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

On 16 April, the Commission published its preliminary findings and proposed concrete measures. According to the Commission, the measures spell out which beneficiaries are eligible, explicitly including AI chatbots with search functionalities, what scope of ranking, query, click and view data Google must share, how often, how personal data must be anonymised, and how pricing and access processes should work. A public consultation on the proposals followed.

“The Commission will conclude the proceedings within six months of their opening.”

European Commission, Digital Markets Act proceedings announcement

Why it matters

Search data sharing would turn Google Search from a closed ranking system into infrastructure that other answer engines can learn from. If AI chatbots gain access to Google’s query, click and ranking signals, the same underlying behaviour data starts feeding many more places where a customer can find, or fail to find, a business. Visibility work stops being about one results page and becomes about a data layer consumed by several.

What this means for multi-location brands

More consumers of search data means more surfaces where location data has to be right. A retail chain or fuel network with hundreds of sites should assume that the facts it publishes, opening hours, addresses, services, will be read not just by Google but by whichever chatbots and rival engines qualify as beneficiaries. That puts a premium on managing location data through APIs rather than surface by surface, and on tracking how AI answers actually present each site with Places AI.

The ruling lands first and hardest in Europe, where the DMA applies. European multi-location brands should treat late July as a checkpoint: whatever the Commission finalises will shape which platforms their location data reaches next.

The bottom line

A binding decision on Google’s search data obligations is expected within weeks, and it is likely to widen the audience for search data well beyond Google itself. Brands that keep their location facts accurate and centrally governed will be readable by whoever comes to the table; brands that do not will be wrong in more places at once.