Google's 'strategic market status' will enhance transparency for publishers: Britain's CMA
Britain's competition regulator plans to designate Google with "strategic market status," potentially forcing changes to its search practices. This designation could also push Google to implement fair ranking measures, facilitate data portability for competitors and pave a easier route to access rival search services.
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In order to curb Google's dominance and enable a more competitive digital market, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Britain's competition watchdog, has put forward changes to tech giant Google's search engine operations (SEO).
They announced that it was consulting to designate Google with 'strategic market status' owing to its strong dominance of the UK search market, where it handles more than 90 percent of the search queries.
If this is finalised in October after the consultation process is done, this designation could reportedly push Google to implement fair ranking measures, enhance transparency for publishers, facilitate data portability for competitors and pave a easier route to access rival search services.
More than 2,00,000 businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) rely on Google's search advertising.
The tech giant's senior director of competition Oliver Bethell opined that the CMA's approach lacks focus and evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, as per media reports.
However, CMA highlighted that the rise of generative AI (Gen AI) could disrupt the search market. The watchdog added that it will monitor its evolving usage.
Recently, Google faced a major blow in its prolonged legal battle with the European Union, as a senior legal adviser to the bloc's highest court recommended rejecting the company's attempt to overturn a $4.7 billion antitrust fine over its Android operating system.
Juliane Kokott, advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), reportedly issued a non-binding option urging the court to dismiss Google's appeal and uphold a 2022 ruling from a lower tribunal that slightly trimmed the original fine imposed by the European Commission in 2018.
