UK’s CMA activates new powers to regulate Google search
A general view of Google’s headquarters in King’s Cross as the tech giant faces a £5bn lawsuit in the UK for allegedly abusing its online search dominance.
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LONDON – Britain’s competition regulator activated new regulatory powers on Friday GoogleThe search activities put the US tech giant in the firing line for further regulatory action.
The Competition and Markets Authority has confirmed that it has appointed Google to “strategic market status” for its general search and search advertising services. It was stated that Google’s Gemini AI assistant was not included in the designation, although other AI-based search features were included.
“We have seen Google maintain a strategic position in the search and search advertising sector, with over 90% of searches in the UK occurring on its platform,” Will Hayter, CMA’s managing director of digital markets, said in a statement. he said.
“Taking into consideration the feedback we received following our proposed decision, today we designated Google’s search services to strategic market status.”
Google said its search product contributes billions of pounds to the UK economy and the country has so far managed to avoid costly restrictions on some of its popular services.
“Many of the ideas for interventions put forward during this process will hinder UK innovation and growth, potentially slowing down product launches at a time of intense AI-based innovation,” said Oliver Bethell, senior competition director at Google.
He added that Google hopes to see “results that reflect such goals in the critical months ahead.”
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