Details
- Status
- Closed
- Opening date
- Deadline
Target audience
All citizens, companies and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation. The Commission especially welcomes contributions from companies that are directly affected by the scope of these proceedings, namely those providing online search engine services including AI chatbots with search functionality.
Why we are consulting
The DMA is a European legislation that aims to make digital markets fairer and more open. The DMA applies to gatekeepers, which are companies operating large digital platforms that play an important role in the digital economy and act as gateways for other companies to access end users. Alphabet is one of such gatekeepers.
Amongst others, the DMA requires gatekeepers that operate online search engine services to share anonymised ranking, query, click and view data with other search engines against fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. To assist Alphabet in sharing such data in an effective way, the Commission opened proceedings on 27 January 2026 to specify measures that Alphabet must implement to comply with its data sharing obligation under the DMA. The Commission’s case reference is DMA.100209.
On 16 April 2026, the Commission addressed its preliminary findings to Alphabet, including the draft measures that Alphabet must take to ensure effective sharing of Google Search data with other search engines. A case summary and the proposed measures are available in the Reference documents section below.
The Commission is now seeking feedback from interested third parties on the proposed measures. The Commission’s measures cover five areas:
- Eligibility: Which third parties are eligible to receive data under Article 6(11) of the DMA?
- Data scope: Which data must Alphabet share?
- Anonymisation: How must Alphabet anonymise the data based on technical measures complemented by contractual measures, without unnecessarily degrading the quality and usefulness of the data?
- Pricing terms: What pricing terms for the search data can be considered FRAND?
- Sharing process: How must Alphabet share the data with third parties?
In particular, the Commission seeks views on the technical aspects of the measures:
- The effectiveness of the measures in practice: if implemented, will the proposed measures offer search data that is useful for third parties providing search engines to optimise their services while meeting the requirement that the shared data is anonymised?
- The completeness of the measures: is anything else is needed to ensure effective sharing of search data?
- Timelines: is the proposed timeline for Alphabet to implement the measures achievable?
The Commission will carefully assess the feedback provided by interested parties and Alphabet. The input received may result in adjustments to the proposed measures and will feed in the Commission’s decision making the measures legally binding on Alphabet. The Commission will adopt a final decision by 27 July 2026 (within six months of opening the proceedings).
Respond to the consultation
Reference documents
Additional information
Frequently asked questions
What is a specification procedure?
Specification proceedings are an instrument to formalise the regulatory dialogue between the Commission and gatekeepers with the aim to further clarify the obligations in the DMA.
The proceedings aim to assist the gatekeeper in their compliance effort by detailing the measures that a gatekeeper must take to effectively comply with the obligations specified in Articles 6 and 7 of the DMA. The Commission has six months to conclude specification proceedings.
The legal basis for a specification procedure is Article 8(2) of the DMA.
What are preliminary findings?
Within three months of the opening of the specification proceedings, the Commission communicates its preliminary findings to the gatekeeper, in this case Alphabet. In the preliminary findings, the Commission explains which measures it considers that Alphabet should implement and the reasoning for the proposed measures.
At the same time, the Commission makes the proposed measures and a summary of the reasoning public, and requests that third parties provide comments on the proposed measures.
Based on the feedback from Alphabet and third parties as well as further investigative steps, the Commission then may adjust the proposed measures. Within six months from the opening of the specification proceedings, the Commission shall adopt its final decision with the binding measures for Alphabet.
The legal basis for preliminary findings is Articles 8(5) and 8(6) of the DMA.
Are there any other active specification procedures?
The Commission has also opened separate specification proceedings in relation to Alphabet’s Android operating system interoperability with third-party AI services.
The case reference for these other proceedings is DMA.100220.
The Commission is organizing a separate public consultation on the proposed measures in this case.
Can I submit a single contribution for the two consultations (DMA.100209 and DMA.100220)?
If you intend to make contributions relating to both cases, please submit two separate contributions according to the instructions on each consultation page. This allows the Commission to allocate your submission to the correct case file.
Why must my contribution be non-confidential towards Alphabet?
The Commission can only rely on non-confidential submissions to reason the final decision in the specification proceedings. In addition, consultation feedback must be made available to Alphabet so that it can express its views on third-party input. Therefore, it is important that contributions are non-confidential.
Will my contributions be made public?
Your contribution will not be made public. Alphabet will be granted access to your contribution, to allow them to provide feedback on your contribution. The Commission may reference it in its final decision.
Where can I find more information about the Digital Markets Act?
More information about the Digital Markets Act is available on its website.