Google Designated Strategic Player In UK Search And Advertising Market

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) designated Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google with strategic market status (SMS) in general search and advertising services after confirming that the company ticked off the legal criteria.

The CMA launched its investigation on Jan. 14, after the UK implemented its new digital markets competition regime on Jan. 1, which allows the authority to take targeted measures to improve competition, drive innovation, and boost investment across the economy.

Since the CMA proposed Google's designation in June, it has collected feedback from over 80 stakeholders.

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The CMA confirmed that Google dominates general search and advertising, giving it a strategic position in the UK market where it handles over 90% of searches. The designation includes AI-based features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.

However, it excludes Google's Gemini AI assistant, although the CMA will continue to review this as the market evolves.

CMA Executive Director for Digital Markets Will Hayter emphasized that the designation enables the CMA to pursue proportionate interventions to maintain open competition.

Google and its tech peers have been grappling with global regulatory action for allegedly abusing their position.

In April, the UK filed a 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) class-action lawsuit against Google, for allegedly exploiting its dominant position in online search to inflate ad prices and suppress competition. The suit alleges that Google pre-installed its search engine and Chrome browser on Android devices and paid Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to make Google the default search engine on iPhones, giving its own advertising services an unfair advantage. This action follows years of regulatory scrutiny, including a 2020 UK market study showing Google controlled 90% of the search ad market and a pending EU antitrust penalty over Android practices.

In September, the European Commission fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.46 billion) for abusing its dominant position in online display advertising. The EU found that since 2014, Google unfairly promoted its own ad tech services—such as AdX, Google Ads, and DV360—over competitors, sharing privileged bid information and structuring tools to favor its platform. These practices gave Google a competitive edge, allowed it to charge higher fees, and distorted competition in the adtech market, prompting the Commission to require corrective action.

GOOGL Price Action: Alphabet shares were up 0.15% at $241.89 premarket at the time of publication on Friday. 

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