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The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has moved beyond merely investigating Google’s search business: it has imposed three legally binding requirements covering publishers’ content in AI search, fairer ranking and user-data portability. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode have not been banned, and the CMA’s broader case remains open.
What is the CMA’s case about?
The CMA opened its case on 14 January 2025. It concerns Google’s general search and search-advertising services—not only AI-generated answers. The regulator is examining the role of organic search and publishers, the relationship between Google Search and newer AI search services, and whether Google’s scale, data and distribution could reinforce its position as search evolves. Google has been designated as having Strategic Market Status in general search and search advertising; AI Overviews and AI Mode fall within the scope of that search designation, not a blanket designation of every Google AI product. CMA case overview and designation announcement.
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AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries presented within or above a conventional results page, alongside links and other search features. AI Mode is a more conversational, multi-turn search experience that generates responses using web content. The CMA’s proposed measures address both, but their effects need not be the same: an overview may change the prominence of links on a results page, while a conversational interface more closely resembles an answer engine. CMA explanation of proposed measures.
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This is principally a digital-markets and competition intervention, not a ruling that AI answers are inaccurate or unlawful, and not a comprehensive decision about copyright or licensing. The competition concern is about how control of a major search gateway interacts with the emerging AI answer layer.
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- Search can be an important route by which UK users find websites and businesses. Google’s reach, data and distribution may help it develop AI search while making it harder for rivals to reach users or obtain the information and scale needed to compete.
- AI answers can appear before conventional links and may change the traffic and bargaining position of the sites whose material helps generate them. Publishers and businesses may feel pressure to permit AI use to preserve visibility, even if they would prefer different terms.
- The wider case also concerns search advertising. The CMA said more than 200,000 UK firms spent over £10 billion on Google search advertising in the previous year; that is the CMA’s stated historical figure, not a current annual total. CMA business and advertising context.
What Google is required to change
Publisher controls for generative-AI search
Imposed on 3 June 2026, the publisher requirement requires Google to give publishers effective controls over use of their search content in generative-AI search features. Google must explain how the content is used, provide clear and detailed engagement metrics for publisher content in those features, take reasonable steps to ensure accurate attribution, and give users a clear way to access the underlying content. The CMA described the measure as strengthening publishers’ bargaining position and enabling them to prevent their content being used to power AI features in Google Search. Publisher conduct requirement and CMA announcement.
This is not a blanket order to stop crawling or indexing publishers’ sites. Ordinary search discovery, use in generative-AI search features, other AI uses outside Google Search, and the links or attribution shown in AI results are distinct issues. The practical scope of the controls—including whether they can be set by page, section or site, how quickly changes take effect, and what opting out means for visibility—depends on Google’s implementation. The requirement does not establish that all Google AI-model training is covered.
Fair ranking and transparency
Imposed on 17 June 2026, the fair-ranking requirement says Google must use objective and non-discriminatory criteria to rank organic search results, including in search generative-AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. It also requires greater transparency, sufficient notice and information about material changes that could affect publishers and create avoidable costs, and a way for publishers to raise concerns about manual actions or material changes that could distort or adversely affect UK markets. Fair-ranking conduct requirement.
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That does not mean every site receives equal visibility, that Google must publish its complete ranking algorithm, or that a publisher is guaranteed a particular position. It is a fairness, transparency and complaints framework, not a promise of fixed rankings or free advertising.
Portability of search data
Also imposed on 17 June 2026, the data-portability requirement requires Google to provide authorised third parties with free tools to facilitate effective portability of a UK consumer’s search data, at that consumer’s request. Potential uses include rewards, personalised-offer and discount-code services. It does not automatically give users a copy of all Google data, open access to every rival, Google’s search index or ranking technology. Data-portability conduct requirement.
What the rules mean for publishers
A publisher that wants to remain discoverable in ordinary Google results but keep its material out of AI summaries needs to distinguish those choices rather than assume that an AI opt-out removes its site from Search. A specialist publisher that welcomes AI citations may instead want to see whether those citations generate meaningful visits. A publisher concerned that a ranking change or manual action has harmed its visibility may have a route to raise that concern under the fair-ranking requirement.
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Before changing a site-wide setting, publishers should establish what the eventual controls actually cover and measure:
- Whether controls apply at domain, subdomain, directory, page or content-type level, and whether they distinguish AI Overviews from AI Mode.
- Whether ordinary crawling, indexing and ranking remain unaffected, whether the setting can be reversed, and how long changes take to apply.
- Whether reporting separates impressions, citations, clicks and downstream engagement; an engagement metric is not necessarily commercially valuable referral traffic.
- How syndicated or licensed material is treated, and how to challenge a suspected ranking disadvantage after opting out.
There is a real trade-off: declining AI use may protect content from being used in summaries but could also reduce its presence in AI answers or exposure to users. Accepting AI use may bring attribution or discovery without guaranteeing visits or revenue. The CMA’s requirements improve controls and information; they do not settle each publisher’s commercial choice.
What the rules mean for businesses and advertisers
The fair-ranking obligation concerns organic results; it does not promise businesses a particular ranking or provide free exposure in place of paid search. Search advertising remains part of the CMA’s broader case. The CMA said the UK digital-markets regime came into force on 1 January 2025, but that fact does not mean advertisers have received a guarantee of lower costs or changed auction outcomes.
Businesses should track distinct outcomes rather than treating an AI answer as an ordinary search click. Separate conventional organic rankings, AI Overview inclusion, AI Mode visibility, branded search, local or shopping results, paid-search exposure, visits, conversions and revenue. Google Search Console is a practical first-party starting point for organic performance, while analytics can measure visits and conversions; neither can fully measure an exposure that never became a visit or prove that an AI answer displaced a click.
For measurement beyond Google, Bing Webmaster Tools offers a free way to monitor another search engine, though its value depends on where a business’s audience searches. Paid SEO suites may help with keyword and competitor research, but no tool is established here as providing definitive CMA-compliance reporting or complete measurement of AI answers. Data portability could also allow permission-based services such as rewards or tailored offers to use search data, once the required tools and useful third-party services are in place.
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What the rules mean for consumers
Clearer source attribution and access could make it easier to inspect material behind an AI answer, while portability may give users more ways to authorise services to use their search data. Those benefits depend on implementation and on third parties building useful options. The measures do not guarantee that an AI summary is accurate, and greater publisher control could mean some answers draw on fewer sources.
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Implementation and what happens next
The CMA set implementation periods of six months for fair ranking and three months for data portability. Counted from the imposition dates of 17 June 2026, those periods run to 17 December 2026 and 17 September 2026 respectively. Implementation and compliance monitoring may develop as the CMA and Google work through the requirements. The publisher requirement was imposed on 3 June 2026. CMA announcement and implementation periods.
A separate user-choice requirement was proposed, but the latest consultation outcome says a decision will follow; it had not yet been imposed. Consultation on proposed conduct requirements. The CMA’s case remains open, so the three requirements should not be treated as a final resolution of every competition concern about Google search or AI.
Quick Recap
What the CMA has not done
- It has not broken up Google or ordered it to remove AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- It has not guaranteed publisher traffic or revenue, equal rankings for all websites, or disclosure of Google’s complete ranking code.
- It has not found that every AI-generated answer is inaccurate or unlawful, or comprehensively regulated all Google AI training.
- It has not made the proposed user-choice requirement final; the decision remained pending in the latest consultation outcome.
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