The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a regulating body in the United Kingdom, has launched an investigation into Google and its dominance in search as well as search advertising services.
The organization said it will look into how Google’s position is impacting businesses such as advertisers, the media and alternate search engines and the effects on consumers.
The investigation is the first under new regulations that went into effect January 1 that allow the CMA to designate companies such as Google as having "strategic market status" and then to require those companies to make changes or to intervene to suggest “pro-competition” measures.
Google responded to the announcement Tuesday in a blog post.
"We look forward to engaging constructively and laying out how our services benefit U.K. consumers and also businesses, as well as the trade-offs inherent in any new regulations," Google said.
The search giant continued: "We welcome the recognition of the importance of digital technologies to power growth, and the need to align regulatory decisions with the Government’s growth mission."
The CMA said search is a “key digital service” for the economy, people and businesses and maintained that effective competition is a priority.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
“Millions of people and businesses across the U.K. rely on Google’s search and advertising services – with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there,” said Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA. “That’s why it’s so important to ensure these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses and that there is a level playing field, especially as [artificial intelligence] has the potential to transform search services.”
A competitive market enables businesses to push innovation and foster alternatives to traditional search, the CMA said, adding that AI startups, for example, could then compete with Google and other services on level ground.
Cardell continued: “It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal - for example in how their data is collected and stored. And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”
The investigation will look at how competition is working, focusing on barriers to entry in search to see if Google is preventing others from innovating in the space. It will also look at whether Google is leveraging market power to self-preference and will consider whether Google is using large amounts of consumer data without consent and if it is using “publisher content without fair terms and conditions.”
The CMA could impose measures such as requiring Google to make its collected data available to other businesses or giving more control to publishers with regard to their data and how it is being used.
The investigation is expected to take nine months with a decision to come by October.
The new investigation is the latest in a string of antitrust issues Google has faced recently. In August, a United States district court judge issued a ruling that Google had created a search monopoly. And in September, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled to uphold a former decision by the European Commission to levy a €2.4 billion fine against Google, ending an antitrust case that lasted for years over Google Shopping.
Concerns about anti-competitive practices extend beyond the search giant. The United States Justice Department last week slapped Amex GBT with a civil antitrust suit regarding its proposed acquisition of competitor CWT.