Key point: Google must provide publishers with effective controls over the use of their content in AI overviews and provide transparent metrics on the impact on user engagement.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is requiring Google to give publishers greater control over how their content is used in AI-generated search results. This is the first time globally that a regulatory authority has imposed such requirements on AI systems in search engines.
The CMA imposed the measures as so-called “Conduct Requirements” because Google Search was designated with “Strategic Market Status” (SMS) under UK digital markets regulation in the previous year. This enables the authority to set specific conduct requirements.
Google must equip publishers with “effective controls” that allow them to determine how their content is used – particularly in the generation of “AI Overviews” and for training Google’s AI models. Additionally, Google is obligated to provide publishers with “clear and user-friendly” information about how their content is used by Google’s generative AI tools. Google must further take “appropriate steps” to ensure that content in search results is clearly and correctly labeled, and provide publishers with detailed metrics on the impact of AI features on user engagement.
These requirements address concerns that publishers have raised since Google announced plans to increasingly prioritise AI-generated answers over links to original content – a model that could significantly reduce search traffic. The authority said the measures should place publishers in a stronger position for content negotiations with Google and lay the groundwork for future regulatory action.
Google has nine months to implement the requirements. The CMA announced it will actively monitor compliance and could take further action to ensure fair value exchange between Google and publishers.
Source: www.politico.eu · Published 3 June 2026
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