The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority this week proposed a series of measures that would allow companies to opt out of having their content used for Google’s AI overviews.
The proposal, announced Wednesday, comes as part of a series of suggestions from the CMA to help chip away at Google’s monopoly over the U.K.’s online search market.
Google search accounts for more than 90% of general search queries in the U.K., according to the watchdog. More than 200,000 British companies collectively spent more than £10 billion (about $13.7 billion) on Google’s search advertising last year.
“These services matter to the U.K.’s economy and society — so it is vital that competition works well,” the CMA’s announcement said.
The CMA proposed measures including publisher controls — allowing publishers “meaningful choice” over how their content is used to power or train AI. It also called for more transparency around the process of data scraping and proper attributions of original content for AI summaries.
Under the measures, Google would be required to demonstrate it fairly ranks search results to the CMA, including in its AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The proposals also suggested Google could make it easier for people to switch their default search engine by requiring choice screens on Android devices and the Chrome browser.
“These actions would give U.K. 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 U.K. tech sector and broader economy,” Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said in the statement.
Will Hayter, the CMA’s executive director for digital markets, wrote in a separate blog post that the measures are intended to support “innovation and growth” for the U.K.’s content publishers.
“This is an important milestone, as these are the first set of conduct requirements under the digital markets competition regime,” he added.
The watchdog said it will be deliberating on the proposals following a feedback consultation period, which ends Feb. 25.
The news comes as media outlets report a dip in click-through traffic, which affects revenue, since Google began posting AI summaries. A report released by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism this month found that media leaders anticipated search engine referrals could fall by as much as 43% over the next three years as a result of AI.
Until now, sites have been unable to opt out of being included in these AI summaries without also forfeiting their inclusion in Google search more widely.
The instance is also not the first time Google has been called out for monopolizing the market.
In 2020, the tech giant was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice over its control of about 90% of the online search market. In the last two years, two U.S. judges in Washington and Virginia separately ruled Google acted illegally to maintain its control by squashing competition.
