Power Shift: UK Law Gives Publishers More Leverage Against Google

A significant power shift could be underway in the relationship between UK publishers and Google, as new regulatory action aims to give content creators more leverage. The Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) decision to designate Google with “strategic market status” includes a specific proposal to provide more control for publishers over how their content is used.
For years, publishers have been in a difficult position. They rely on Google for a significant portion of their audience traffic, yet they have little say in how Google displays, summarizes, or monetizes their content in its search results. This has become even more pressing with the advent of Google’s AI Overviews, which can answer user queries directly, potentially reducing clicks to the publishers’ own websites.
The CMA’s intervention could change this dynamic. By making publisher control a key part of its new regulatory framework, the watchdog could mandate changes that force Google to be more transparent and equitable. This might include giving publishers the ability to opt out of having their content used in AI summaries without being penalized in search rankings, or creating mechanisms for fairer revenue sharing.
This move addresses a core tension of the modern internet: the symbiotic but imbalanced relationship between the platforms that aggregate content and the creators who produce it. The CMA is signaling that the value created by publishers needs to be better protected in the digital ecosystem.
While the exact details will be worked out in the upcoming consultation, this focus on publisher rights is a major victory for the news and media industries. It suggests that under the UK’s new digital markets regime, the concerns of content creators will be a central part of the regulatory conversation.