The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has introduced two new conduct requirements for Google’s general search services, one covering how organic results are ranked and another covering search data portability.
Under the fair ranking requirement, Google must rank organic results using objective and non-discriminatory criteria, including in AI Overviews, but not sponsored results. It also has to be more transparent about how rankings work, give advance notice of significant changes, and set up a process for businesses to raise concerns.
Fair Ranking
Businesses told the CMA that Google’s ranking practices are neither fair nor transparent, that changes arrive without sufficient notice, and that they have no effective way to raise concerns when those changes hurt them.
Will Hayter, Executive Director for Digital Markets at the CMA, said in the announcement:
“These new measures will ensure search results are ranked fairly and objectively, with clearer information about changes and effective routes to raise concerns.”
Google pushed back on the premise behind the ranking requirement. A spokesperson told Press Gazette that the company’s “ranking systems are fair, transparent and show the most relevant, highest quality results.”
Data Portability
The second requirement turns Google’s voluntary UK Data Portability API into a legal obligation. The tool already lets people share their search data with third-party services.
Those services want to build products around the data but have lacked reliable access, for uses like personalized shopping deals or cashback rewards. The requirement brings UK users’ data rights in line with the EU’s under the Digital Markets Act.
Timeline & Oversight
Google has six months to implement the fair ranking requirement and three months for data portability. The CMA will monitor compliance through regular reporting and may add further measures.
How We Got Here
The requirements follow the CMA’s early-June action that gave websites more control over whether their content is used to power Google’s AI features. Both sit under the UK’s digital markets competition regime, created by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.
Google was designated with strategic market status in general search and search advertising last year. That designation is not a finding that Google broke competition law.
Why This Matters
The fair ranking requirement targets a long-standing frustration in search. UK businesses rely on Google Search to reach customers, but say the way rankings work is too unpredictable to plan around. Objective criteria, advance notice of significant changes, and a complaints process would give those businesses a defined route to raise concerns.
The requirement covers organic results, including those in AI Overviews, but not sponsored results. That places AI Overview ranking under the same fairness and transparency obligations as standard organic ranking.
The requirement doesn’t make Google’s ranking systems public. It sets obligations around criteria, notice, and complaints, not disclosure of the ranking algorithm.
Looking Ahead
The CMA is acting in stages, with more activity on Google’s search business expected over the summer. Both requirements apply only in the UK.
The open question now is implementation. The requirement’s value depends on how Google puts it into practice, and whether that satisfies the CMA.
The UK action adds to broader regulatory scrutiny of Google Search in other markets, including the United States and the European Union.
Featured Image: Tupungato/Shutterstock
