28 January 2026
Responding to the Competition and Markets Authority’s proposed measures to improve Google search services in the UK, News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith has said:
“This is a critical next step in bringing the new digital markets regime to life – and with-it fair competition to the digital economy. We strongly welcome the CMA’s proposals to allow news publishers to control whether their content is used in AI Overviews while remaining visible in Google Search results and to ensure fair ranking of publisher content. The CMA rightly recognises that Google is able to extract valuable data without reward, harming publishers and giving the company an unfair advantage over competitors in the AI model market, including British startups.
“Opening up model development to competition is vital to attracting inward investment to the UK, while licensing our high-quality journalistic content could unlock significant economic growth. However, given the seriousness of Google’s anti-competitive impact on news media and the AI market, we are sceptical that weaker behavioural remedies will be sufficient, and we urge the CMA to consider full physical separation of crawlers for Search and individual AI products.
“Ensuring the CMA is properly resourced and supported by the government will allow the regulator to move faster on other essential interventions, including requiring Google to negotiate fair and reasonable payment terms with publishers. Without a clear duty on Google to negotiate, publishers will continue to face significant barriers to securing a fair price for their valuable content. It is critical that Ministers support the CMA to move at pace.”