The UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has launched an investigation into whether Google’s significant dominance in online search is harming competition and user choice. Google currently holds a commanding 90% share of the UK’s web search market, prompting concerns that its position may be limiting opportunities for rivals and stifling innovation.
This marks the CMA’s first investigation since it gained enhanced powers to probe and enforce changes at companies deemed to have “strategic market status” in the digital sector. The new powers, which came into effect in January, allow the CMA to scrutinize firms that hold substantial influence in specific markets.
In a statement, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell emphasized the importance of ensuring that Google’s market power does not inhibit competition or consumer choice. “Millions of people and businesses across the UK rely on Google’s search and advertising services,” Cardell said. “We want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”
The CMA’s investigation will focus on whether Google is using its dominance in search to limit innovation or prevent competitors from entering the market. It will also assess if the company is “self-preferencing” its own services, such as promoting its own products over competitors in search results. Additionally, the CMA will examine Google’s data practices, including how it collects and uses user information, particularly for its artificial intelligence (AI) features.
Google has stated it will cooperate with the investigation but expressed concerns about what it described as “overly prescriptive digital competition rules.” “We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites and allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting-edge services,” Google said in a statement.
This investigation is part of a broader global trend, with Google facing similar scrutiny in other regions. In the US, for instance, the government is pressing for the company to divest its Chrome browser to address allegations of illegal monopolistic practices in search and advertising.
The CMA’s new powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act provide it with the ability to impose rules on companies that dominate digital sectors. If the CMA finds that Google has strategic market status, it may enforce changes to its operations, such as sharing user data with other businesses or granting publishers more control over their data.
Pinar Akman, a law professor at the University of Leeds, suggested that further investigations into other large digital firms may be likely. “There is a general trend of regulating digital markets with large players around the world, and the DMCC Act represents the UK’s response to that growing trend,” she said.
The investigation comes amid growing government interest in the potential of AI to transform industries, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently highlighting AI’s “vast potential” to reshape public services and the economy.
