British Regulator Will Investigate Google

Uploaded on 2025-01-17 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW

Google is being investigated by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the impact of its search and advertising practices as they affect consumers, news publishers, businesses and rival search engines.

This is its first investigation after gaining new powers to investigate and enforce changes at firms it determines to have "strategic market status" in digital markets.

Right now, Google accounts for 90% of UK web searches and more than 200,000 UK advertisers using Google’s search advertising and now the CMA is looking at whether it is using that dominant position to harm competition, or choice for users.

The CMA says it wants to ensure the tech giant is "delivering good outcomes for people and businesses" and that there is a "level playing field" for rivals. Its investigation will look into the impact of its standard search, its Google Ads platform and its Gemini Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant. Google says it will cooperate with the investigation but has warned against what it calls "overly prescriptive digital competition rules." In a statement Google said: "We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting edge services."

This is just the latest in a series of investigations Google faces worldwide. In the US could be ordered to divest its Chrome browser to address what a Federal judge has ruled is an illegal search monopoly and related advertising.

Indeed, the CMA may impose similar requirements on Google, which might include ordering that Google shares its collected data with other businesses or granting publishers greater control over how their data is used, including in Google’s AI services.

The investigation, expected to take up to nine months, could have significant implications for Google’s business practices. If found in violation of competition laws, Google could be compelled to share its extensive troves of data with competitors and give publishers more control over their content.

This could include protections against the use of their books, newspaper articles, and music in Google’s rapidly expanding AI systems.

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