CMA Grants Google Strategic Market Status in UK Digital Markets

After a long consultation process, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has formally announced that Google passes the tests to meet strategic market status in general search and search advertising services.

In practice, this decision means that the CMA can use powers it received from the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 to take “targeted and proportionate action to improve competition in digital markets.”

The framework to assign strategic market status to Google started in January this year and saw feedback from more than 80 stakeholders, alongside engagement between Google and the CMA. The analysis concluded that Google has a “substantial and entrenched market power” and, while there are no immediate requirements following the designation, the CMA will now consult on potential interventions.

“We have found that Google maintains a strategic position in the search and search advertising sector – with more than 90% of searches in the UK taking place on its platform,” explained Will Hayter, Executive Director for Digital Markets at the CMA.

“By promoting competition in digital markets like search and search advertising, we can unlock opportunities for businesses big and small to support innovation and growth, driving investment across the UK economy,” continued Hayter.

Now that the CMA has the power to impose bespoke requirements on major hyperscale gatekeepers like Google, smaller startups may benefit from the potential opening up of market access. The UK’s CMA is not the first competition authority around the world to take this action, with other regulators in the European Union (EU) and the US taking similar positions.

“Online search is evolving as GenAI tools become more widely used, but the CMA must still act to tackle the harmful dominance Google has now and to promote competition between GenAI search tools,” said Rocio Concha, the director of policy and advocacy at Which?.

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