UK regulator orders Google to give publishers AI search opt-out

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has imposed binding rules on Google’s search services in a move it calls a world first.

The UK’s competition regulator has formally required Google to let publishers opt out of having their content used to power AI features in search, including its AI Overviews product.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) imposed the conduct requirement today (3 June) under the UK’s digital markets competition regime, making it the first binding ruling of its kind to be issued against a major tech platform in the UK.

Following consultation feedback, publishers will also be able to opt out of their content being used for the fine-tuning of Google’s AI models, giving them control over the full range of AI use cases of their content. Google will also be required to attribute publisher content clearly, using links, in AI-generated search results.

The CMA said the requirement would put publishers, including news organisations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google.

The ruling follows Google’s designation in October 2025 as having strategic market status in UK search, a formal finding of substantial and entrenched market power that gave the CMA the power to impose targeted rules on the company.

The CMA said it was also responding to Google’s announcement in May that it planned significant changes to its search platform to further embed AI technologies, which the regulator said could fundamentally change how search results are presented to UK users. Today’s requirement will apply to those changes.

“Today, we have introduced a world-first requirement on Google’s search services in the UK, enabling fair treatment, greater transparency and meaningful choice for businesses and consumers,” said Sarah Cardell, CEO of the CMA.

“With features like AI Overviews rapidly reshaping online search, it is crucial that content publishers, including news organisations, have appropriate bargaining power over how their content is used.”

A spokesperson for Google pointed siliconrepublic.com to its official blog post reaction to the announcement, saying it would begin testing a new toggle in Search Console allowing website owners to decide whether their content appears in AI Overviews, AI Mode and related features. Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from those features, Google said, and the setting will not affect rankings in standard search results.

The company also said it would roll out new performance insights in Search Console showing publishers which of their pages appear in AI responses and in which countries.

Google said it would begin the rollout to a subset of website owners in the UK first, “allowing for thorough testing before rolling them out to website owners globally”.

The blog post, written by Mrinalini Loew, general manager of Google Search Ecosystem, did not directly address the CMA’s ruling but framed the changes as part of Google’s own initiative to give website owners more control as user behaviour shifts toward AI-powered search. Google said AI Overviews now has over 2.5bn monthly active users and AI Mode has surpassed one billion.

Google has nine months to implement all required changes under the CMA’s conduct requirement, though the regulator said it expects the key publisher controls to be available well before that deadline. Google must submit compliance reports every six months in the first year, backed by data and metrics.

Cardell confirmed that further action in relation to Google’s search business would be announced in the coming weeks. The CMA said it has now launched four strategic market status investigations into major tech companies since the digital markets regime came into force last year, covering Google, Apple and Microsoft.

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