The EU just ordered Google to hand its search data to competitors including AI assistants like ChatGPT. Here is what plumbers, dentists, HVAC companies, and other service businesses need to know.
Ido Cohen · Published 2026-07-17 · SEO & Search
The European Commission dropped two legally binding orders on Google yesterday — July 16, 2026 — that will fundamentally change how AI assistants compete for the local searches your business depends on. The orders, issued under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), force Google to share its Search data with rival AI chatbots and search engines, and to give those same rivals the same deep Android system access currently reserved for Google's own Gemini assistant. If you run a service business — plumbing, HVAC, dental practice, real estate, legal, med spa, financial advisory — this is the most important search-platform news of 2026 so far, and the clock is already ticking.
Two separate binding measures. Two different problems they solve for Google's competitors.
Measure 1 — Search Data Sharing: The European Commission's official statement confirmed it "issued two sets of binding specification measures to Google under the Digital Markets Act," with one measure aimed at giving third-party search engines access to search data that only Google Search can collect at scale. Concretely: Google must hand over anonymized search query, click, and ranking data to eligible rivals — including AI chatbots with search capabilities — on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The data sharing deadline is January 2027.
Measure 2 — Android Interoperability: The second order requires Google to give competing AI assistants — think ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity — the same system-level Android access it currently reserves for Gemini. According to 9to5Google's coverage, that means third-party AI assistants must be activatable through voice commands in a way similar to "Hey Google," and must be able to interact with apps, control hardware, and complete tasks like sending emails or ordering services — capabilities Gemini has had since early 2026. Android changes must be available to users by July 2027.
Both orders are legally binding and enforceable immediately, concluding six months of specification proceedings the Commission opened in January 2026.
Most service businesses still act like Google is the only game in town. That assumption is already wrong, and these orders accelerate the collapse of it.
Here is the specific mechanism: Google's search ranking data is the secret sauce that makes its results so accurate. As Techloy's coverage explained, if millions of users consistently click the same website for a particular query, Google learns from that behavior and adjusts future rankings. Until now, no competitor had access to that signal at scale. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude built their search products largely on crawled web content, without knowing which results users actually chose. Starting January 2027, that advantage disappears in the EU.
The numbers matter here. According to Medianama's reporting of the Commission's own data, around 60% of EU users are on Android devices. The Commission argued that limited OS access made rival AI assistants less useful and less attractive to a large share of users — and that was the structural complaint driving the order.
Brussels Signal quoted one competition policy analyst who noted that "ChatGPT holds roughly 70 percent of EU chatbot usage" already — meaning Google is actually the challenger in the AI assistant race, not the incumbent. The DMA order doesn't just tilt the playing field; it arms the current leader with better data.
For US service businesses: yes, the orders only apply in the EU right now. But the pattern matters globally. When ChatGPT and Claude get better local search signals in the EU, they improve their models for local query types everywhere. And US regulators are watching Brussels. The US DOJ's ongoing antitrust case against Google already flagged search data as a core competitive moat.
Let's be precise about what this data actually includes, because service businesses need to understand the mechanism.
Google's data advantage comes from three layers that the Commission's specification targets:
Right now, when ChatGPT's search tool or Perplexity answers a question like "best plumber in Austin," it lacks the behavioral confirmation layer that Google has from 30 years of click data. The EU order requires Google to share anonymized versions of exactly that signal — at the same frequency Google uses it internally, per the Commission's specification.
For service businesses, this means AI chatbots recommending local services are going to get meaningfully smarter. The question is: will your business get picked when they do?
Here is the honest answer: you are already being ranked by multiple AI assistants, and you have almost no visibility into how. This order makes that problem more urgent, not less.
The EU data-sharing rules require Google to provide data "on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms" — meaning eligible companies must pay for it, but at a price formula the Commission controls, not one Google sets strategically to make the data unaffordable.
Importantly, the Brussels Signal coverage noted that the data can only be used to improve search products — not for advertising or user profiling. So rivals can use it to surface better local results, but they cannot immediately turn your customer's search behavior into a retargeting data point for their ad networks. That is a meaningful privacy protection, but it does not change the visibility game.
The second order is the one most service businesses will underestimate. Right now, when someone on an Android phone asks their voice assistant for a "plumber near me" or "best dentist accepting new patients," that query almost certainly goes to Gemini. Gemini is the system-level default. ChatGPT and Claude are third-party apps with limited hardware access.
Under the new Android interoperability rules, users in Europe will be able to set ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity as their default voice assistant — activated the same way "Hey Google" works today — with full access to app interactions, location, and task completion. Euronews and France 24 both confirmed the Android changes must reach users by July 2027.
For a plumber, HVAC technician, or locksmith: voice search for local emergency services is exactly where default assistant status matters most. The user in a broken-pipe panic is not going to open three apps — they are going to say "Hey" whatever their default is and book the first thing that comes back. If ChatGPT now has full access to the Android experience AND Google's behavioral click data, it becomes a genuine threat to the local-search pipeline that Google Maps and Local Services Ads currently dominate.
Google is not accepting this quietly. Google's head of global affairs, Kent Walker, argued publicly that the measures would risk "undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans." The company warned that sharing search data would "expose Europeans' private searches to unfamiliar companies."
More strategically, one competition analyst quoted by Brussels Signal warned that "Apple faced the same demand and decided to keep Siri AI off EU iPhones entirely" — suggesting Google's rational response might be to slow-walk Gemini development in Europe rather than hand competitors its moat.
France 24 also reported that the EU could issue a separate DMA fine against Google as early as next week in an unrelated investigation, suggesting the regulatory pressure is not a one-off event but a sustained campaign.
For service businesses, the takeaway from Google's resistance is this: the transition will be slower than the headlines suggest, but the direction is locked in. The EU has handed AI assistants a path to genuine search parity. The companies that move earliest to optimize across platforms — not just Google — will own the traffic when parity actually arrives.
The EU orders have multi-year timelines, but your optimization work needs to start now. Here is a concrete five-step action plan.
1. Audit your presence on non-Google AI search platforms this week.
Search your own business name and primary service category on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. If you are not appearing as a top recommendation, document why — missing structured data, sparse reviews, thin web content, or no presence on the directories those tools pull from (Yelp, Tripadvisor, TripAdvisor, Better Business Bureau, industry association directories).
2. Double down on structured data and schema markup on your website.
AI assistants scrape structured data before unstructured text. Make sure your site has LocalBusiness schema, ServiceArea schema, and FAQ schema deployed. These are the machine-readable signals that help AI chatbots surface your business accurately — and they are platform-agnostic.
3. Build your review volume on multiple platforms, not just Google.
Google's click behavioral data will help AI platforms understand which local businesses satisfy users — but reviews are the proxy those AI systems use right now. A dentist with 400 Google reviews and 12 Yelp reviews is under-indexed for ChatGPT's current recommendation logic, which pulls heavily from non-Google sources. Aim for parity across at least three platforms: Google, Yelp, and one industry-specific directory.
4. Optimize for conversational, long-tail local queries.
The search query data Google is sharing with AI rivals will include the exact long-tail phrases people actually type — "emergency water heater replacement Sunday" or "implant dentist accepting Delta Dental near downtown." Start writing content that answers those specific questions. FAQ pages, service area pages, and blog posts targeting long-tail local queries become more valuable as AI assistants get better behavioral data to match queries to results.
5. Set up a tracking system for AI referral traffic.
Google Analytics 4 now reports AI chatbot referrals as a distinct channel. Check your GA4 channel report and note your current baseline from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot. As the EU data-sharing order takes effect in early 2027 and AI assistant quality improves, you want to see those numbers move. If they are not growing, your optimization is not working.
The window before these changes reshape local search is real, but not infinite. US regulatory pressure on Google is building. AI referral traffic is already growing — AI-referred traffic surged 393% in Q1 2026, according to industry tracking, and converts at a higher rate than standard search. Getting your business visible on the platforms that are about to get significantly better at local recommendations is exactly the kind of early move that compounds over the next 18 months.
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Does this EU order affect US service businesses?
Directly, no — the EU's Digital Markets Act only applies to companies operating in the European Union. However, the effects are global in practice. AI models like ChatGPT and Claude are trained and improved on data signals gathered globally. Better local-search data in the EU improves how these systems handle local queries everywhere. And US antitrust proceedings against Google are separately applying pressure on similar data-sharing questions. Treat this as early signal, not a foreign problem.
What is the Digital Markets Act (DMA)?
The DMA is EU legislation that designates the world's largest tech platforms — Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and TikTok — as "gatekeepers" and imposes specific obligations to prevent them from using dominant platform positions to lock out competitors. Google's Search, Android, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and advertising services were all designated as core platform services under DMA in 2023. Yesterday's orders are binding compliance measures specifying exactly how Google must fulfill its DMA obligations on data sharing and Android access.
When will ChatGPT and Claude actually have access to Google's search data?
Google must begin sharing anonymized search query, click, and ranking data with eligible rivals by January 2027. The Android interoperability changes — giving rival AI assistants the same system-level access Gemini has — must reach end users by July 2027. Both timelines are legally binding, but Google has signaled it will challenge the measures, which could slow implementation.
What data exactly is Google sharing, and could it hurt my business's privacy?
The Commission's specification requires anonymized search query, click, and ranking data. According to the Commission, a multi-layered anonymization method was developed in close collaboration with privacy experts and must comply with GDPR. The data cannot be used by recipients for advertising or user profiling — only for improving search products. Your customers' identifiable information is not being shared; the signal being shared is aggregate behavioral patterns about what searches lead users to click which types of results.
Should I stop investing in Google SEO and Google Ads?
No. Google still commands the majority of search volume globally, and these changes phase in over 18 months with legal uncertainty on the timeline. What you should stop doing is treating Google as your only distribution channel. The EU order accelerates a multi-platform local search reality that was already developing. The right posture is to optimize for Google as your primary channel while systematically building visibility on the AI platforms that are about to become significantly more capable.
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