UK forces Google to give publishers more control over AI content use

The Competition and Markets Authority has moved to give UK publishers a new lever in their fight over AI and search, ordering Google to let them opt out of having their content used to power AI features such as AI Overviews. The regulator said the change should put publishers “in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google,” a direct intervention in the balance of power between the country’s dominant search engine and the businesses that feed it information.

The new conduct requirement took effect on 3 June 2026, after Google was designated with strategic market status in general search services in October 2025. The CMA said the rule is a “world first” and is meant to give publishers more control over whether their material is used in Google Search, while also requiring Google to properly attribute publisher content in AI-generated results with clear links. Publishers will also be able to opt out of their content being used to fine-tune AI models.

The stakes are unusually high in the United Kingdom. Google Search accounts for more than 90% of general search queries, and the CMA said more than 200,000 UK firms collectively spent more than £10 billion on Google search advertising last year. That scale is why the regulator has framed the issue not just as a content dispute, but as a market power problem that affects traffic, revenue and the ability of publishers to invest in journalism.

The CMA said publishers currently do not have sufficient choice over how Google uses their content, and argued that the company’s dominance means many have “no realistic option” but to allow their material to be crawled. The watchdog said broader AI changes, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, could fundamentally alter how search results are presented to users in the UK, with news singled out as a sector that could be especially exposed to lost click-through traffic.

That concern sits at the center of the new rules. The CMA said AI summaries can reduce traffic because users get answers without visiting source sites, and it noted that Google’s existing no-snippet controls can also depress clicks by removing the descriptive text that helps users decide whether to go through to a publisher’s page. The January 2026 consultation proposed that publishers should be able to opt out of AI Overviews without losing their normal search visibility, a crucial distinction for outlets that depend on discovery through search.

Google had already signaled in January that it was “exploring updates” to its controls so sites could specifically opt out of search generative AI features. Even so, the CMA’s latest move is a clear warning that the terms of visibility in AI search will not be left to Google alone. The regulator said it is actively monitoring how the company implements the changes and may take further action if needed, setting up a new phase in the struggle over who controls the economic value of online content.