EU Tells Google to Open Up Search Engine Data

By Edith Hancock

The European Union said it provided Alphabet's Google with guidance on how to open up its search data for third parties to bring the tech giant in line with the bloc's digital antitrust rulebook.

The EU competition watchdog opened proceedings into the search engine in January to instruct the company how to comply with the bloc's Digital Markets Act. The EU said Thursday that it sent preliminary findings to the company, which aim to give other search engines access to data such as ranking and queries.

"The aim of the measures is to allow third party online search engines, or 'data beneficiaries', to optimize their search services and contest Google Search's position," the commission said.

Google said in response that the commission's proposal would force the company to hand data from sensitive searches to third parties.

"We will continue to vigorously defend against this overreach, which far exceeds the DMA's original mandate and jeopardizes people's privacy and security," Clare Kelly, the company's senior competition counsel, said.

Write to Edith Hancock at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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