UK watchdog targets Google’s search monopoly – Tech Digest

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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has moved to break Google’s “vice-like grip” on the search market with a sweeping new package of regulations.

Google’s dominance acts as a critical gateway for millions of UK citizens and over 200,000 businesses, who spent more than £10 billion on Google search advertising last year alone.

Targeting the tech giant’s 90% market share, the proposed measures represent the first major intervention under the UK’s new digital markets competition regime.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, described the proposals as “an important milestone,” stating that these “targeted and proportionate actions would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control.”

A primary focus of the crackdown is “AI Overviews.” The CMA aims to ensure content publishers, specifically news organizations, have more transparency over how their work is used to train AI models.

Under the proposed rules, publishers could opt out of having their content power Google’s AI features. The regulator also insists that Google must ensure all publisher content is “properly attributed” in AI-generated results.

Further measures include a legal requirement for “choice screens” on Android mobile devices and the Chrome browser, designed to make switching to rival search engines effortless. Additionally, Google will be forced to prove that its ranking algorithms are fair and transparent, particularly regarding its own services.

The CMA is currently consulting on these requirements, with a deadline for feedback set for February 25, 2026. If implemented, the rules could fundamentally reshape the digital economy in the UK, providing what Cardell calls a “fairer deal for content publishers” and unlocking “greater opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector.”

The consumer association Which? has welcomed the move but urged the regulator to accelerate its efforts. Says Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy:

“Google holds a vice-like grip over the search engine market, which shuts out other businesses and reduces choice and pushes up costs for consumers.

“These proposed requirements are needed to make sure businesses and consumers get a fair deal from Google. Wider availability of better choice screens are a necessary first step to opening up the market for other search tools.

“However, time is of the essence and the CMA has already fallen behind its timetable for change.It must move swiftly and the government must stand firmly behind the regulator.”

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