The AI bundling practices currently deployed violate EU competition law and consumer rights.
Court-documented evidence from US antitrust proceedings (April-September 2025) proves:

• Google pays Samsung monthly to pre-install Gemini AI and financially penalizes manufacturers who don't meet "placement obligations" (Source: US DOJ v. Google, MediaNama Sept 2025)
• Google contractually blocked Motorola from offering Perplexity AI as default despite manufacturer preference (Source: Bloomberg Law, April 23, 2025)
• Samsung will deploy mandatory Google Gemini on 800 million devices in 2026 (Source: Reuters, Jan 5, 2026)
• Apple is rebuilding Siri on Google Gemini infrastructure for spring 2026 launch (Source: Bloomberg/Mashable, Jan 2026)

This affects 1.25 billion smartphones shipped annually — nearly every consumer device in the EU market.

Why action is needed now:
The App Store monopoly took 10 years to regulate. By the time enforcement came, architectural lock-in was irreversible. AI bundling creates deeper lock-in because it controls the inference layer — how users access information, communicate, and make decisions.
When one AI controls defaults on a billion devices:

• Competing AI cannot access comparable training data
• Users face asymmetric switching costs
• Developers optimize for dominant platform
• Network effects concentrate market power

The DMA already prohibits this conduct. Gatekeepers must allow uninstallation (Art 6(3)), not self-preference (Art 6(5)), and provide effective interoperability (Art 6(7)). Current AI bundling violates all three provisions.

Sources:

• US DOJ antitrust filings: https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1402141/dl
• MediaNama court analysis: https://www.medianama.com/2025/09/223-googles-oem-agreements/
• Bloomberg Law testimony: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/google-blocked-motorola-use-of-perplexity-ai-witness-testifies
• DMA text: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en