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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has moved beyond investigating Google’s search power: it designated Google as having Strategic Market Status (SMS) in general search in October 2025 and imposed three search-related conduct requirements in June 2026. The case remains open as of August 16, 2026. The measures concern publishers and AI features, fair ranking, and data portability—not a breakup of Google or a finding that it committed an antitrust offence.
What the CMA investigated—and what it decided
The CMA opened its investigation on January 14, 2025, into Google’s general search and search-advertising services. Its scope included how Google distributes search, ranks and displays organic results, uses publisher material in generative-AI search features, and handles data portability. The CMA also examined the relationships between Google and publishers and other businesses that rely on search.
On October 10, 2025, the CMA designated Google as having Strategic Market Status in general search services. The CMA’s final decision concluded that Google met the statutory tests for substantial and entrenched market power and strategic significance in UK general search. The decision and case record are available in the CMA’s designation announcement and its final decision.
SMS is a regulatory designation under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, not a court ruling that Google broke competition law. It gives the CMA’s Digital Markets Unit powers to set targeted conduct requirements and consider pro-competition interventions. A company’s market power is not, by itself, proof of unlawful conduct. The CMA’s case page lists the investigation as open.
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What Google is required to do
The CMA proposed a package of interventions in January 2026, including possible measures on choice, ranking, publisher relationships and data access. Those proposals were subject to consultation; they should not be confused with the final requirements imposed later. The CMA described the proposals in its announcement and Digital Markets Unit explanation.
Publisher protections
Imposed on June 3, 2026, the publisher conduct requirement addresses Google’s use of publisher search content in generative-AI search features. It requires effective publisher controls over that use, clear explanations of how content is used, detailed engagement metrics, reasonable steps to ensure accurate attribution, and a clear route for users to reach the underlying publisher content. Google must also explain its attribution approach in comprehensible terms. The CMA measure page gives the requirement’s details.
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The CMA has described the controls as enabling a UK opt-out from use of content in certain Google AI-search features. That is not a blanket right to prevent every use of publisher material by Google in every product or context. Nor does better attribution guarantee that a publisher will regain traffic if users increasingly get answers without clicking through.
Fair ranking
Imposed on June 17, 2026, the fair-ranking requirement calls for organic results to be ranked using objective, non-discriminatory criteria, including where relevant in search generative-AI features. It also requires greater transparency about ranking systems, notice and information about material changes that may affect publishers or raise avoidable costs, and a way for publishers to raise concerns about manual actions or significant ranking changes that could distort or adversely affect UK markets. The obligations are set out on the CMA’s fair-ranking page.
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This is not an order to publish Google’s complete ranking algorithm. The focus is on fair treatment, explanations, notice and routes to raise concerns—not disclosure of every ranking signal.
Data portability
The CMA case page records that a data-portability conduct requirement was imposed on June 17, 2026. The precise operational obligations should be read in the relevant final notice and decision on the CMA case page; the available case summary does not justify describing the requirement more broadly than that.
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Why AI search matters to publishers
Search has long been a route by which publishers reach readers. AI-generated summaries add a different concern: a search feature may draw on publisher content while answering a user without a visit to the original site. The new requirement addresses control over certain uses, attribution, links to source material and information about engagement. It does not establish that AI features have caused a particular amount of lost traffic, or promise that referrals will recover.
For publishers, the practical questions are whether available controls match their needs, what metrics Google provides, how clearly source material is identified, and how ranking concerns can be raised. The requirement may improve information and control, while leaving broader changes in user behavior, including zero-click searches, unresolved.
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What could change for users, businesses and advertisers
Consumers
The CMA’s wider aims include improving choice and competition in search. More active choice or better conditions for rival services could eventually give users alternatives in search quality, privacy or AI features. These are intended or possible effects, not demonstrated outcomes. Google Search is not being removed or prohibited, and the measures do not guarantee that rival services will gain substantial usage.
Publishers and SEO businesses
Ranking transparency, notice of material changes and complaint routes may help publishers and businesses that depend on search traffic understand changes and respond to them. The requirements do not ensure stable rankings, a particular volume of referrals or recovery from traffic declines.
Advertisers
The SMS designation covers Google’s general search and search-advertising activities, so the CMA’s broader scrutiny includes how businesses reach users through search advertising. The June 2026 measures highlighted by the CMA, however, focus primarily on ranking, publishers, AI features and portability. They should not be treated as a final remedy for every aspect of Google’s advertising business or as proof that advertising costs will fall.
What this case is—and is not
- It is an ongoing CMA digital-markets process that has produced an SMS designation and three conduct requirements for Google’s UK search services.
- It is not a breakup order, a prohibition on Google Search, or a court finding that Google committed an antitrust offence.
- It is not a global order: the measures arise under the UK regime and concern Google’s UK general search services.
- It is not the CMA’s separate ad-tech case. That investigation concerns suspected anti-competitive conduct in online display advertising technology, not this SMS process. See the separate CMA ad-tech case.
- It is not the same as private damages litigation. Separate claims before the Competition Appeal Tribunal allege harm connected with search and advertising; they are private proceedings, not decisions by the CMA. See Or Brook Class Representative Limited and Nikki Stopford.
What happens next
The CMA case remains open. The next important questions are how Google implements the requirements, whether publishers can use the controls and metrics effectively, how ranking complaints are handled, and what monitoring or further interventions the CMA undertakes. Compliance details and timing should be checked against the relevant final notices, as implementation obligations may vary by requirement.
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The sequence so far is: the UK’s digital-markets regime took effect on January 1, 2025; the CMA opened the Google investigation on January 14, 2025; designated Google in general search as SMS on October 10, 2025; proposed a measures package in January 2026; then imposed publisher protections on June 3 and fair-ranking and data-portability requirements on June 17, 2026. The CMA case page is the current reference for the case’s status and documents.
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