Google faces a potential data sharing mandate as the UK's competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), initiates an investigation into the tech giant's practices. The CMA is scrutinizing how Google's search and advertising services affect users and businesses, including advertisers, news websites, and rival search engines. A key focus is whether Google leverages its dominant market share to stifle competition and erect barriers for potential entrants.
The CMA is particularly concerned about Google's influence on the development of new AI services and whether it prioritizes its own offerings, such as Google Shopping and Google Flights, over competitors. The investigation will also delve into potential exploitative conduct stemming from Google's vast collection and utilization of consumer data without explicit consent. This includes practices like using news articles without adequately compensating publishers. The CMA possesses the authority to compel Google to disclose collected data to other businesses or to mandate greater control for publishers over their data usage. Google's dominance in the UK market is undeniable, commanding over 90% of general search queries and hosting more than 200,000 UK advertisers. This investigation marks the first action taken under the digital markets competition regime implemented on January 1st. The regime empowers the CMA to designate companies with strategic market status and impose new regulations accordingly. Effective competition among search engines could potentially lower the cost of search results advertising, estimated to be nearly £500 per household annually, according to the CMA.The UK's scrutiny of Google's practices follows similar investigations in the EU and US. A US federal court ruled in August that Google illegally maintained an online search monopoly. Meanwhile, an EU investigation into Google's parent company, Alphabet, is examining whether it imposed restrictions that hindered developers from promoting services from other companies, focusing on search results for services like Google Shopping and Google Flights.