UK to investigate Google's search services using new regulatory remit
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LONDON: Britain will use new regulatory powers to investigate Google's search services to see how they impact consumers and businesses, including advertisers and rivals, following US calls to break up the tech giant.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which gained a wider remit over big tech this month, said search was vital for economic growth and it was critical that competition was working.
"Millions of people and businesses 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," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said.
"It's our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal."
UK regulators including the CMA have been told by the Labour government to prioritise measures that boost economic growth.
Google, in its response to the probe, noted the CMA's comment that search was vital for growth.
"Google Search supports millions of UK businesses to grow by reaching customers in innovative ways," a spokesperson said.
"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," the spokesperson added.
US PRESSURE
The CMA's move comes after US prosecutors in November argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data and search results with rivals, and take a range of other measures to end what they called its monopoly on online search.
In August, a US judge said Google had violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to become the world's default search engine.
In the UK, Google is already in the CMA's crosshairs, along with Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud computing market, while the regulator is also set to probe the Google-Apple duopoly in mobile browsers.
Under its new powers, the CMA must designate firms as having Strategic Market Status (SMS) in relation to a digital activity before it can investigate.
It said it would assess whether Google had SMS in both search and in search advertising, and whether it should then impose conduct requirements or intervene in the market.
It will examine barriers to entry and innovation in search and whether Google uses its market dominance to offer preferential treatment for its own services.
Google's collection and use of large quantities of consumer data will also be looked at, it added.
The growth in AI-powered search engines, such as ChatGPT, could challenge Google's dominance in the long term.
The CMA said it would examine whether Google was able to shape the development of new AI services and interfaces to counter this potential threat.
The result of the investigation, which will take up to nine months, could include requiring Google to make data available to other businesses or giving publishers more control over how their data is used, including in Google's AI services.
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