UK May Compel Google To Change Search Rankings, Offer Alternatives

Alphabet’s Google could be about to face more challenges in the search engine market, as the UK competition regulator mulls giving Google special status.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proposed “to designate Google with strategic market status under the new Digital Markets Competition Regime.” This will give the UK regulator more power to intervene in search services in order to “increase innovation and economic growth.”

It comes after the CMA in January 2025 had launched an “investigation to determine if Google has strategic market status in search and search advertising activities and whether these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses in the UK.”

CMA roadmap

Now the CMA has proposed a roadmap “setting out potential early actions to improve outcomes for consumers and businesses,” ahead of a final decision in October.

“If designated, the CMA would be able to introduce targeted measures to address specific aspects of how Google operates search services in the UK,” the regulator said.

The CMA said it has also published a roadmap of potential actions it could prioritise were Google to be designated.

Early priorities include: requiring choice screens for users to access different search providers; ensuring fair ranking principles for businesses appearing on Google search; more transparency and control for publishers whose content appears in search results; and portability of consumer search data to support innovation in new products and services.

The CMA noted that Google search accounts for more than 90 percent of all general search queries in the UK, and is used by millions of people, and more than 200,000 businesses in the UK rely on Google search advertising to reach their customers.

“These services matter to our economy and society – so it is vital that competition works well,” the regulator stated.

Concerns raised

It comes after the CMA investigation heard concerns, including:

• Google’s index of billions of websites, its access to trillions of historical searches, and its ecosystem of information, are extremely hard for others to replicate
• Higher costs of search advertising than would be expected in a more competitive market
• Limited transparency and fairness in how Google ranks and presents search results
• Publishers can face challenges in securing fair terms and control over how their content is used in Google’s search and AI-generated responses
• Default agreements with mobile device manufacturers can make it more difficult for competitors to reach customers
• Innovative businesses can struggle to compete as people can’t easily share their search data with firms developing new services

As part of the roadmap proposals, the CMA could compel Google to offer “choice screens” to help people easily select and switch between search services (potentially including AI assistants).

The CMA could also compel “fair and non-discriminatory ranking of search results; more control and transparency for publishers over how their content collected for search is used, including in AI-generated responses and search results more generally; and data portability to help new businesses bring innovative products to market.”

Proposed designation

“Google is the world’s leading search tool and plays an important role in all our lives, with the average person in the UK making 5 to 10 searches a day,” said Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA.

“It is equally critical for over 200,000 UK businesses which rely on Google to reach their customers,” said Cardell. “Google search has delivered tremendous benefits – but our investigation so far suggests there are ways to make these markets more open, competitive and innovative.”

“Today marks an important milestone in our implementation of the new Digital Markets Competition Regime in the UK,” said Cardell. “Alongside our proposed designation of Google’s search activities, we have set out a roadmap of possible future action to improve outcomes for people and businesses in the UK.”

“These targeted and proportionate actions would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services – as well as unlocking greater opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector and broader economy,” Cardell concluded.

Google response

Google meanwhile a lukewarm response to the CMA’s roadmap and potential designation.

The search engine giant warned that “punitive regulation” could stop it bringing new features and services to Britain, and described the scope of the CMA’s considerations as “broad and unfocused”, Reuters reported.

“Proportionate, evidence-based regulation will be essential to preventing the CMA’s roadmap from becoming a roadblock to growth in the UK,” Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director for competition was quoted as saying.