A new and critical battleground in the long-running war between publishers and Google has opened up in the United Kingdom. The competition regulator’s decision to designate Google with “strategic market status” has put the rights of content creators front and center, promising them more ammunition in their fight for fair treatment.
The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has specifically proposed “providing more control for publishers over how their content is used” as one of its key potential interventions. This is a direct response to years of complaints from the media industry that Google builds its multi-billion-dollar business on the back of their content without providing fair compensation or control.
This issue has been supercharged by the rise of AI. Google’s AI Overviews, which summarize information directly on the search results page, pose an existential threat to publishers. They fear that users will get their answers from Google’s AI without ever needing to click through to the original articles, devastating their traffic and advertising revenue.
The CMA’s intervention could be a game-changer. Under the new regime, Google could be forced to give publishers clear tools to opt out of having their content used for AI training or summaries without being punished in search rankings. It could also pave the way for new licensing and revenue-sharing agreements that are more favorable to the content creators.
This move shifts the balance of power. For the first time, UK publishers will have a powerful regulator actively advocating for their interests, turning the one-sided relationship with Google into a more contested and potentially more equitable negotiation.
