Google faces first major investigation into UK's tough new antitrust rules

LONDON – Britain's competition watchdog launched an investigation into the matter on Tuesday. Google search service in the first major investigation under the country's tough new competition rules.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it is assessing whether Google has a “strategic market position” (SMS) under the new UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act (DMCC).

The DMCC, which officially came into effect on January 1, aims to prevent anti-competitive behavior in the digital market. Designating a company to own an “SMS” would give regulators the power to implement changes to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.

CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator was investigating Google's dominance of the search market to ensure a “level playing field” – especially as artificial intelligence is changing the way people search online Down.

“Our job is to ensure that people fully benefit from choice and innovation in search services and receive a fair deal, for example in how their data is collected and stored,” Caddell said.

“For businesses, whether you are a competing search engine, advertiser or news organization, we want to ensure a level playing field for all businesses, big and small, to succeed,” she added.

The CMA's move comes after the US Department of Justice asked Google to divest its Chrome browser. The U.S. Department of Justice filed to break up the internet giant after finding it had a monopoly in the search market.

Regulators on Tuesday highlighted Google's dominance of the UK search market as a major concern.

According to the CMA, Google accounts for more than 90% of all general search queries in the UK, with more than 200,000 advertisers in the country using the company's search advertising tools.

The CMA said search was “vital to economic growth”, explaining that search plays an important role in connecting companies with other businesses, investors and customers, meaning that competition is “vital”.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC via email: “Google Search supports millions of British businesses by reaching customers in innovative ways. Today's announcement from the CMA recognizes this.”

A Google spokesperson added: “We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure the new rules benefit all types of websites and still allow British people to benefit from useful and advanced services.”

In a blog post published late on Tuesday, Google called on the UK to establish “an evidence-based system that supports innovation,” adding that “overly prescriptive digital competition rules will ultimately stifle choice and opportunity for consumers and businesses.”

We will do our best to advocate for new rules that benefit every business and allow the British people to benefit from useful cutting-edge services.

The CMA added that effective competition in search is needed to ensure news publishers are treated fairly when their content is used.

With the emergence of new AI-based search methods such as OpenAI and Perplexity, the CMA said it was also concerned that Google's position in the market could disadvantage new innovative players.