UK CMA Investigates Google Over Online Search Domination
More potential antitrust trouble for Google, after UK competition watchdog launches investigation into online search domination
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Alphabet’s Google is facing a potential antitrust headache in the United Kingdom, as it contends with a potential breakup of its business in the United States.
The UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it has launched an “investigation to determine if Google has strategic market status in search and search advertising activities and whether these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses in the UK.”
Google has faced other antitrust issues in the United Kingdom before, as well as calls for an investigation into the Google mobile ecosystem.
But it was in September 2024, when the CMA said it provisionally found that Google had abused its market dominance in advertising technology to favour its own ad tech services in open display advertising.
Search, Search advertising
The CMA said at the time it would take feedback from Google into account before before making a final decision.
Now the CMA on Tuesday said it has “launched its first strategic market status (SMS) designation investigation under the new digital markets competition regime which came into force on 1 January 2025.
The investigation will assess Google’s position in search and search advertising services and how this impacts consumers and businesses including advertisers, news publishers, and rival search engines.”
The CMA noted that Google’s services have generated significant benefits in the UK, as its search services are a gateway through which millions of people and businesses access and navigate the internet.
Indeed in the UK, Google apparently accounts for more than 90 percent of all general search queries, and more than 200,000 UK advertisers use Google’s search advertising.
The regulator said that given the importance of search as a key digital service for people, businesses and the economy, it is critical that competition works well.
Under the digital markets competition regime, the CMA may designate firms with SMS in relation to a particular digital activity. Once designated, the CMA can impose conduct requirements or propose pro-competition interventions to achieve positive outcomes for UK consumers and businesses.
CMA investigation
The CMA said its investigation will assess whether Google has SMS in the UK search and search advertising sectors and, in parallel, consider whether conduct requirements should be imposed in the event of a final designation decision.
The issues that will form part of the CMA’s investigation include:
- Weak competition and barriers to entry and innovation in search.
- Possible leveraging of market power and ensuring open markets.
- Potential exploitative conduct.
Potential conduct requirements could include, for example, requirements on Google to make the data it collects available to other businesses or giving publishers more control over how their data is used including in Google’s AI services.
The CMA said it would “take a proportionate and transparent approach to this investigation which must be completed within 9 months.”
Going forward it will “focus on engaging a wide range of stakeholders – including advertising firms, news publishers and user groups – as well as gathering evidence from Google before reaching a decision by October 2025.”
“Millions of people and businesses across the UK rely on Google’s search and advertising services – with 90 per cent of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there,” said Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA.
“That’s why it’s so important to ensure these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses and that there is a level playing field, especially as AI has the potential to transform search services,” said Cardell.
“It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal – for example in how their data is collected and stored,” said Cardell. “And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”
“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,” Google told the BBC.
Other investigations
The CMA investigation is the latest in a series of antitrust probes Google is facing worldwide.
The US Department of Justice, along with multiple states, had launched a probe into Google’s digital advertising practices in January 2023.
The European Commission said in June 2023 a “behavioural remedy is likely to be ineffective to prevent the risk” of further abuse in the ad tech sector and that Google may be forced to break up its advertising business from its core services.
But perhaps the most pressing challenge for CEO Sundar Pichai, came after US judge Amit Mehta in August 2024 ruled that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”
Judge Mehta found that Google had violated antitrust law by spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s default search engine.
In November 2024 the US Justice Department (DoJ) confirmed rumours and demanded that Google sells off Chrome web browser and ends default search payments to Apple.
