Summary

  • Following a 2024 marked by lawsuits and antitrust investigations, Google is now under investigation by the UK’s CMA regarding its dominance in search and advertising markets.
  • The CMA will assess Google’s market position and its impact on consumers and businesses, specifically examining potential exploitative data practices, self-preferencing, and the creation of barriers to entry for competitors.
  • The CMA’s investigation, under the DMCC Act 2024, will conclude with an “SMS Decision Notice” in October



Google’s 2024 was riddled with lawsuits, anticompetitive investigations, and antitrust scrutiny from regulatory bodies worldwide. 2025 promises more of the same, if not worse.

If being ordered to pay Russian media entities $20.6 decillion in fines wasn’t enough, the Mountain View, California-based tech giant is now being investigated by the UK’s CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) for its strategic market status (SMS)/market dominance in the search engine and advertising markets

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The investigation, which falls under Part 1 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024, will culminate in October this year with the CMA offering its ‘SMS Decision Notice.’ During this time, the regulatory body 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,” and decide whether “conduct requirements” should be posed on Google.


Today, January 14, marks the CMA’s official invitation to those affected by Google’s dominance to comment and assist with the investigation. Interested parties will have until February 3 to comment.

Google, on the other hand, is cooperating with the CMA, saying that it looks forward to “engaging constructively and laying out how our services benefit UK consumers and also businesses, as well as the trade-offs inherent in any new regulations. For reference, in the UK, Google Search accounts for 90 percent of all general search inquiries, while its search advertising services are used by more than 200,000 businesses.


Here are the main issues the CMA is looking to investigate:

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  • Potential exploitative conduct: The CMA will investigate Google regarding its possible collection and use of consumer data without informed consent, possibly to train its AI models. Additionally, the regulatory body also aims to investigate the tech giant’s potential collection of intellectual property owned by publishers “without fair terms and conditions.”
  • Self preference: The CMA will investigate whether Google’s search engine dominance results in it giving priority to its own services — “for example, specialised search services covering shopping and travel.”
  • Barrier to entry for competition: The CMA will investigate whether the tech giant is using its position to stifle innovation. “In particular, whether Google is able to shape the development of new AI services and interfaces, including ‘answer engines’, in ways which limit the competitive constraint they impose on Google Search.”

If found to be guilty, conduct requirements could include Google having to make its collected data available to other businesses, alongside giving “publishers more control over how their data is used, including in Google’s AI services.”