Various European Commission consultations

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An Open Web Data Infrastructure for Europe: We’re actively helping to shape European policy and legislation!

We completed the OpenWebSearch.EU project in April this year. Nevertheless, the OpenWebSearch Initiative, which brings together many partners from the OWS project and new stakeholders from research and industry, continues to work tirelessly on and for the Open Web Index (OWI).

The initiative not only aims to develop the infrastructure further, but is also committed to creating the framework conditions for a European Web Data Infrastructure. Shaping European policy and influencing legislation in support of an open European Web Data Infrastructure are, and will remain, key tasks of the initiative and the OSF.

We take every opportunity to emphasize the importance of a web data infrastructure for Europe!

With this mission in mind, we have, over the past few months, submitted comments on various European Commission consultations in collaboration with the OpenWebSearch Initiative and the PriDI project. In these consultations, citizens and other stakeholders can provide feedback on the Commission’s planned policy and legislative initiatives.

Among other things, we participated in the consultation on the Digital Decade Policy Program, the Digital Fitness Check, and the consultations on the review of the Copyright Directive and on European Partnerships and Joint Undertakings. Our comments are published on the European Commission’s website and are taken into account by the Commission when evaluating its initiatives.

You can find more information about the individual consultations in which we participated and our comments at https://openwebsearch.eu/remaining-active-we-provided-feedback-for-various-european-commission-consultations/. We have also provided links to our comments there.

It’s worth sticking to it, which is why we will continue to play an active role in Europe and work toward establishing the framework for a European web data infrastructure.

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Google is once again in the pillory for favoring its own services

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In July 2026, the European Commission imposed a fine of 890 million euros on Google for, among other things, supposedly favoring its own search services, such as Google Shopping and Google Flights, over those of other providers, and thereby violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The fine imposed is the highest the Commission has ever imposed for a violation of the DMA.

Read more about what the Commision‘s decision means, what happens next, and how the PriDi team assesses the fine that has now been imposed. Hop over to the PriDi project blog and get filled in on the details here. (Please Note: the blogpost is available in German language only.)

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Law Enforcement against Big Tech – Still a Fight against Windmills?

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Who Is Liable for AI-Generated Responses?

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The PriDI team monitors current developments, legal proceedings, and rulings related to digitalization, data protection, AI, and Big Tech, and one key question is: Who is actually liable for AI-generated responses?

Until now, the general principle has been that traditional search engines bear only limited liability for the list of links and their content. Search engine operators were not required to proactively review these lists in advance. The search engine operator was not required to take action until it had been notified of a legal violation.

This principle does not apply to AI-generated summaries (so-called “AI Overviews”). In its ruling of May 28, 2026 (Case No. 26 O 869/26), the Munich I Regional Court ruled that Google is liable for false information in these summaries. According to the ruling by the Munich I Regional Court, an AI-generated summary, unlike a list of links constitutes more than just the provision of third-party content. The court finds that Google can control and influence the content of these summaries. Therefore, unlike the content of a list of links, Google must be held responsible for this content. The ruling is not yet final.

The PriDI project has analyzed and summarized the decision of the Munich I Regional Court. A summary in German is available here.

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New SOURCE Project Launched

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The SOURCE research project (launched on April 1, 2026) makes a key contribution to the German federal government’s IT security research as part of the BMFTR research program “Digital.Sicher.Souverän.” (“Digital.Secure.Sovereign.”)

SOURCE stands for “Skalierbare, offene und umfassende Erkennung von Desinformationskampagnen im Web“ (“Scalable, Open, and Comprehensive Detection of Disinformation Campaigns on the Web”). The project is supported by the BMFTR as part of the funding line “Vertrauen in Demokratie und Staat: Digitale Desinformation erkennen und abwehren” (“Trust in Democracy and the State: Detecting and Countering Digital Disinformation”).

Together with our project partners, the University of Passau, the University of Kassel, the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), and Alliance4Europe (A4E), we were successful in the competitive tendering process for this collaborative project within the BMFTR research program “Digital.Sicher.Souverän.”

The focus of SOURCE is the development of a freely accessible database of potential disinformation artifacts. This involves utilizing web data from the Open Web Index and additional social media crawls, which are then analyzed and interpreted in terms of content and origin using AI tools. The necessary AI, cloud, and storage capacities are provided by a federated digital infrastructure.

The active Open Web Search community, as well as technical and editorial expert communities, are brought on board early for needs assessments. The communities are expected to contribute concrete use cases, which will be used to test, further enrich, and make the database content practical.

The data generated by the project will be made available to both the scientific community and users in the fields of journalism, business, and civil society, thereby creating a solid foundation for identifying and combating disinformation on the web.

The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is funding the project with €2,500,000 over a period of three years.

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Merkur: ‘Starnberg Initiative launches charter: Internet search as critical infrastructure’

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“Erkämpft und verhasst – Die Geschichte des Datenschutzes” | BR Radiowissen

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“Census, no way!” is the title of the BR podcast “Erkämpft und verhasst – Die Geschichte des Datenschutzes” (Hard-won and hated – The history of data protection), which deals with the history of data protection in its episode dated August 22, 2025.

Why a census in Germany in 1987 sparked waves of protest, what this had to do with data protection, and what data protection looks like in the digital age – author Stefan Foag discusses these topics and much more for the German podcast BR Radiowissen.

But let’s go back to the beginning: a protest by concerned citizens in response to the historic census in 1987 got the whole thing started in Germany. Issues such as data protection and the right to informational self-determination were critically examined and publicly questioned in the context of German history.

Concerns about data protection have now become a very prominent issue worldwide, with the European Union playing a particularly important role. The development of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and case law on the responsibility of large tech companies have set decisive milestones in this area. Today, however, the shift in surveillance from state institutions to digital companies is causing particular concern and resistance.

Leopold Beer, lawyer and employee of the Open Search Foundation, was interviewed on this topic. He explains how Europe, as a central market for digital solutions, can become a global pioneer in the regulation of data protection law through the so-called “Brussels effect.” An important step in this direction is the OpenWebSearch.Eu project with its specially developed Open Web Index. It aims to meet legal and ethical requirements in the best possible way and thus develop the basis for a European, data protection-friendly search engine.

You can find the entire episode here: https://www.ardsounds.de/episode/urn:ard:episode:9df03c9454d8baa6/

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Open web search for Europe: The Open Web Index as an alternative to Google | Podcast Deutschlandfunk Kultur

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What does a European, independent search infrastructure look like – beyond the ubiquitous Google search? This is precisely the subject of the Deutschlandfunk Kultur report, in which our project plays a prominent role.

In a short guest comment, Dr. Stefan Voigt from the board of the Open Search Foundation characterizes the concept of the Open Web Search Initiative as follows
“To inspire Europe to build its own web search infrastructure – based on a publicly accessible web index on which a wide variety of search engines and front-ends can be created.”

Journalist Stefan Mey discusses the Open Web Index as a foundational technology for a European sovereign web infrastructure in the podcast.
Google’s quasi-monopoly and the failure of alternative providers to date highlight the need for new solutions.

The independent index should serve as a basis for AI training and as a partner index for search engines.
It’ll form a landscape of different providers from universal search engines to specialized search engines on “nerd topics”.

The podcast also discusses the current status of the project, the question of funding and the importance of an open search index as part of Europe’s critical digital infrastructure.

Listen to the whole podcast at Deutschlandfunk:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/zutritt-verboten-eu-diskutiert-altersbeschraenkungen-fuer-social-media-100.html

By the way: Jan Penfrat from EDRi (European

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We were invited to “Besser Wissen” podcast

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In the episode with the enticing title “Will the European search engine come – how an independent search index is being created”, podcast host Martin Wolff spoke with our OSF board member Dr. Stefan Voigt as well as Prof. Dr. Michael Granitzer about the current search engine landscape.

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Google, Meta and Hildegard von Bingen?

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