Commission Implementing Decision on Alphabet Art.6(11) search data sharing
On 16 July 2026 the Commission adopted binding specification measures under DMA Article 6(11) on how Alphabet must share anonymised Google Search data with eligible rival search engines, with sharing to start from January 2027.
On 16 July 2026 the European Commission issued binding specification measures requiring Alphabet to share Google Search data with eligible third-party search engines under DMA Article 6(11) (Commission news; DMA portal case page).
What the decision specifies
Article 6(11) requires a gatekeeper search engine to give rival search engines access, on FRAND terms, to ranking, query, click and view data generated by end users. The Commission opened specification proceedings on 27 January 2026 (case DMA.100209) and adopted the final decision on 16 July 2026. Eligible beneficiaries include AI chatbots offering search functionalities. The Commission states Google must start sharing search data with eligible providers from January 2027, with staged milestones (eligibility form and public webpage by end August 2026; licence templates and samples by September; anonymised dataset by November).
Anonymisation safeguards are part of the binding measures. Secondary reporting has discussed Alphabet’s prior unique-query removal rates; operators should treat the Commission annex and decision text — not blog recaps — as controlling.
Operator action
| Field | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Decision date | 2026-07-16 |
| Case | DMA.100209 / Art.6(11) |
| Data sharing start | January 2027 (Commission press) |
| Beneficiaries | Eligible third-party OSEs incl. AI chatbots with search |
| UA implication | Long-term SEO/ASA competitive dynamics for game discovery ads may shift as rivals obtain richer query/click data; no immediate CPI claim |
This is a specification decision on search-data sharing, not the separate 23 July 2026 €890m DMA fine.
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