Google has faced the first major investigation of Britain’s tough new antitrust rules

LONDON — Britain’s competition watchdog launched an investigation on Tuesday Google search services, marking the first major investigation under the country’s tough new competition rules.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it wants to assess whether Google has “strategic market status” (SMS) under the UK’s new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act.

The DMCC, which officially came into force on January 1, aims to prevent anti-competitive behavior in digital markets. Designating a company as having an “SMS” will give the regulator the power to make changes to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said the regulator was reviewing Google’s dominance of the search market to ensure a “level playing field” – particularly as artificial intelligence changes the way people search the internet.

“Our job is to make sure people take full advantage of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal — for example, in how their data is collected and stored,” Cardell said.

“And for businesses, whether you’re a competing search engine, an advertiser or a news organization, we want to ensure a level playing field for all companies, large and small, to succeed,” she added.

The CMA’s move follows a request from the US Department of Justice force Google to abandon the Chrome browser. The Department of Justice filed suit to hack the Internet giant after it found it monopolized the search market.

On Tuesday, the regulator highlighted Google’s dominance of the UK search market as a major concern.

Google accounts for more than 90% of all total UK searches and, according to the CMA, more than 200,000 advertisers in the country use the company’s search advertising tools.

Search is “vital to economic growth”, the CMA said, explaining that its role in connecting companies to other businesses, investors and customers meant competition was “critical”.

“Google Search is helping millions of UK businesses grow by reaching customers in innovative ways. Today’s CMA statement recognizes this,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC via email.

“We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that the new rules benefit all types of websites and continue to allow people in the UK to enjoy useful and cutting-edge services,” added a Google spokesperson.

The CMA added that effective search competition is necessary to ensure that news publishers are treated fairly when using their content.

With the emergence of new AI-powered search methods such as OpenAI and Perplexity, the CMA said it was also concerned about Google’s market position, which could put new, innovative players at a disadvantage.