The European Commission (EC) has ordered Google to give rival AI assistants greater access to Android and share anonymised search data with competing search engines and qualifying AI chatbots in a move that could accelerate competition for control of AI-enabled shopping journeys.
The two sets of binding measures have been issued under the Digital Markets Act. The first requires Google to give third-party AI assistants access to important Android functions currently available more fully to Gemini. This will allow consumers to activate their preferred assistant using voice commands and authorise it to perform tasks through other apps.
The second requires Google to share anonymised data collected through Google Search, including ranking, query, click and viewing information, with eligible competitors on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
Significantly, the Commission has confirmed that AI chatbots providing search functionality can qualify for access. Subject to safeguards, Google must share the same types of data it uses to optimise its own search services. The European Commission said the measures are intended to give European consumers a wider range of AI and search services.
More gateways into commerce
For retail media, the ruling could help prevent Google from becoming the default gateway to agentic commerce.
Google is incorporating Gemini into Search and developing tools that allow consumers to research, compare and buy products without necessarily visiting a retailer’s website. Its AI Mode is already being equipped with sponsored recommendations, personalised offers and native checkout.
Google’s strength comes partly from the vast quantity of search behaviour it can use to understand intent and improve recommendations. Giving rival services access to anonymised versions of that data could help companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity improve their own product discovery and shopping capabilities.
Android interoperability is equally important. If rival assistants can be activated and used across apps as easily as Gemini, they can potentially search for products, compare retailers, arrange delivery and complete purchases from the device’s operating-system layer.
This could create multiple new commerce-media environments in which brands and retailers pay to influence recommendations, secure inclusion in AI-generated shortlists or present offers at the point an agent is ready to transact.
Retailers face opportunity and disintermediation
Greater competition among AI platforms may prevent Google from controlling the entire AI shopping funnel. Retailers could gain more routes to customers and stronger negotiating leverage than they would have in a market dominated by a single agent.
But the decision also increases the danger of disintermediation. If shopping happens through an assistant, the retailer may receive the order without receiving a website visit. That means fewer browsing signals, fewer onsite advertising impressions and less opportunity to cross-sell directly.
Retail media networks will consequently need to make product, price, inventory, delivery and loyalty information accessible to multiple AI systems. Advertising measurement may also have to move beyond impressions and clicks towards recommendation share, shortlist inclusion and completed agent-assisted purchases.
The ruling does not give competitors Google’s advertising technology, identifiable customer profiles or complete commercial intelligence. Nevertheless, it could weaken Google’s exclusive data advantage and speed the emergence of a retail media market in which brands must compete for the attention of machines as well as people.
