The UK may require Google to provide alternative search options to users and rank the results “more fairer”

UK competition regulator I said On Tuesday, Search Giants are looking at a new market designation for Google, which needs to offer users alternative search options, rank search results “more fairer” and provide more control over how content is used in search and AI overviews.

Under the new digital market competitive regime that came into effect earlier this year, the UK Competitive Market Authority (CMA) said it would begin discussions on whether Google would be designated as a “strategic market situation.”

Under its designation that CMAs can be applied to companies with a “strong enough position” in the market, Google will be forced to comply with a number of measures, including: Fair ranking principles for search results. Google’s AI services (including AI overview and Gemini AI assistant) provide better control for publishers on how content was collected for search. It also allows people to transfer data such as search history.

in Blog post CMA CEO Sarah Cardell noted that the UK company spent more than £33,000 per person on Google Search Ads last year on consultations and proposed designations.

“Google search accounts for over 90% of all common search queries in the UK, and millions of people rely on as important gateways to the internet (…) if the competition worked well, we expect these costs to be lower,” Cardell wrote.

“These targeted and proportional actions will not only give UK businesses and consumers more choice and control over how they interact with Google’s search services, but also unlock greater opportunities for innovation across the UK’s tech sector and the broader economy,” Cardell said in a separate statement.

The CMA is currently gathering opinions on the designation and opinions from industry stakeholders on proposed measures and will make a decision on the designation by October 13th.

Google did not immediately return a request for comment.