The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority this week proposed a series of measures that would allow companies to avoid having their content used for Google’s AI observations.
The proposal, announced on Wednesday, comes as part of a series of suggestions from the CMA to help end Google’s monopoly on the UK online search market.
According to the watchdog, more than 90% of common search queries in the UK are based on Google searches. More than 200,000 British companies collectively spent more than £10 billion (about $13.7 billion) on Google’s search advertising last year.
“These services matter to the UK economy and society – so it is vital that competition works well,” the CMA said. Announcement Said.
The CMA proposed measures including publisher control – allowing publishers “meaningful choices” over how their content is used to power or train AI. It also called for greater transparency around the process of data scraping and proper attribution of original content to AI summarization.
Under the measures, Google will be required to demonstrate that it ranks search results appropriately to CMA, including through its AI Overview and AI Mode.
The proposals also suggest that Google could make it easier for people to switch their default search engine by requiring a preferences screen on Android devices and the Chrome browser.
“These actions will give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services – as well as opening up more opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector and the wider economy,” Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said in the statement.
Will Hayter, CMA’s executive director of digital markets, wrote in a separate article. blog Post that these measures are intended to support “innovation and growth” for UK content publishers.
“This is an important milestone as it is the first set of conduct requirements under the digital market competition regime,” he said.
The watchdog said it would deliberate on the proposals after a feedback consultation period ending on February 25.
The news comes as media outlets report a decline in click-through traffic, which impacts revenue, since Google began posting AI summaries. A report A report released this month by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that media leaders estimate that search engine referrals could decline by as much as 43% over the next three years as a result of AI.
Until now, sites have been unable to opt out of being included in these AI summaries, as well as being excluded from broader inclusion in Google Search.
This example is not the first time Google has been called out for monopolizing the market.
In 2020, the tech giant was sued by the US Justice Department over control of nearly 90% of the online search market. Over the past two years, two American judges Washington And Virginia Separately governed Google acted illegally to maintain its control by suppressing competition.
