UK antitrust watchdog says Google may have to offer rival search options

LONDON (AP) – Google could be forced to let British users choose whether to use rival search services, the country’s antitrust watchdog said Tuesday as it proposed using new digital regulations to boost competition.

The Competition and Markets Authority said its “priority measures” include requiring Google to present users with “choice screens” when they use key products like the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.

The choice screens would let users “easily select and switch between search services,” which could potentially include AI assistants, it said.

The watchdog is seeking to give Google a ” strategic market status ” label under the new U.K. digital rules. That would give it the power to use “targeted measures” to impose changes to “specific aspects” of its search operations in the U.K.

The CMA’s move “could have significant implications for businesses and consumers in the UK,” Google said.

Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition, noted in a prepared statement that CMA reiterated that ‘strategic market status’ doesn’t imply that anti-competitive behavior has taken place, “yet this announcement presents clear challenges to critical areas of our business in the U.K.,”

The watchdog has until Oct. 13 to decide on whether to give Google the label.

It has drawn up three other initial priority measures that it would carry out if it goes ahead.

Google would have to make its search results ranking and presentation fair and non-discriminatory, and give businesses an effective way to complain if they’ve been treated unfairly.

Publishers should be given choice and transparency about how their content collected by Google is used for AI services, such as AI-generated overviews that have been appearing at the top of search results.

The CMA also wants to ensure people can easily transfer their data, such as their Google search history, to other businesses, which the CMA said could foster innovative new products and services.