The UK's competition watchdog has proposed sweeping new rules to curb Google’s dominance in search, including a requirement to let websites opt out of powering AI-generated summaries without disappearing from results entirely.
Draft conduct rules from the Competition and Markets Authority, the first under new digital markets powers, also aim to prevent the Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) company from unfairly prioritising advertisers or punishing critics, and mandate more transparent ranking processes.
Publishers would gain control over whether their content is used in AI training, while consumers would see choice screens on Android and Chrome to encourage switching.
The measures respond to long-running complaints from media groups about falling traffic and opaque practices.
Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, said: "Today is an important milestone as we consult on the first conduct requirements under the digital markets competition regime in the UK.
"These targeted and proportionate actions would give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services - as well as unlocking greater opportunities for innovation across the UK tech sector and broader economy. They would also provide a fairer deal for content publishers, particularly news organisations, over how their content is used in Google’s AI Overviews."
A public consultation runs until 25 February, with binding rules potentially in place later this year.
Owen Meredith, the chief executive of the News Media Association (NMA), told the Press Association that Google currently "exploits their dominant position in search by forcing publishers to opt out of appearing in search results entirely – reducing public’s access to trusted sources of news – unless they are willing to give their content away for free to AI chatbots that are then ranked above their own journalism."
Google product management executive Ron Eden said in a statement that Google provides web publishers "with a range of controls" to manage how their content appears in search.
"We're now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features.
"Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content."
He said Google looked forward to engaging in the CMA’s process but warned that “any new controls need to avoid breaking Search in a way that leads to a fragmented or confusing experience for people.
"As AI increasingly becomes a core part of how people find information, any new controls also need to be simple and scalable for website owners.".