Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on June 3 imposed a conduct requirement on Google’s search services after designating the company as having strategic market status under rules that took effect on January 1, 2025.

The rules allow the regulator to set tailored obligations for firms with entrenched market power.

The CMA said Google handles more than 90% of UK search queries and must let publishers block their content from AI search features such as AI Overviews while keeping it in standard search results. Publishers must also be able to opt out of having their content used to fine-tune AI models.

Google must also clearly attribute publisher content in AI-generated search results with links. The CMA said the measure was meant to give publishers more control and bargaining power.

Studies have also linked AI Overviews to a 34.5% reduction in clicks for some searches.

Google has nine months to implement the changes and must publish compliance reports every six months in the first year. Breaches can draw penalties of up to 10% of worldwide turnover.

Google said it was testing new publisher controls and adding more links in AI responses as scrutiny widened, including a European Union move to investigate its AI summaries.

🔗 Source: Reuters

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