Open Markets Applauds UK CMA Proposal to Designate Google with ‘Strategic Market Status’ and Calls for Swift Action to Restore Competition in Search

WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute released the following statement from its director, Dr. Courtney Radsch, on the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s provisional decision to grant Google ‘strategic market status’ and its proposal for possible interventions to restore competition in search: 

“The CMA has taken an important first step in addressing Google’s monopoly over search and search advertising in the UK, as its strategic market status investigation into Google’s search services has yielded a strong conclusion: Google has substantial and entrenched market power in search and search advertising, and there is no convincing evidence that such power will dissipate in the next five years, even when considering the emergence of AI assistants.” 

“We welcome especially the CMA’s analysis that the emergence of AI assistants do not pose a significant threat to Google’s market power in search, and that in fact Google already has clear advantages in generative AI as it can integrate its AI assistants to existing products. This and other conclusions by the CMA also reflect Open Markets Institute’s assessment of market dynamics in search, as submitted to the CMA in February 2025.” 

“The next step for the CMA is to establish a set of short- and long-term interventions to restore competition in this market. Among its first set of remedies are, for example, creating choice screens, ensuring fair and non-discriminatory ranking of search results, and providing publishers more control over how their content is used for search and AI products. This shows the CMA’s willingness to move forward with a strong baseline of behavioral remedies.” 

“However, we reiterate our call on the CMA to consider bolder solutions, such as banning the exclusive dealings between Google, browsers, and phone manufacturers, creating data sharing obligations such as search index syndication licenses, and considering divestment orders for Chrome and Android.” 

Open Markets will be submitting more detailed comments on these and other proposed solutions by the CMA in the coming weeks. 

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