Microsoft Advertising · Status at source date: Newsletter archive
UK regulator orders Google to rank search results fairly and transparently
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has imposed two new conduct requirements on Google's search services. Under the Fair Ranking requirement, Google must rank organic results: including in AI Overviews, but not sponsored results: using objective and non-discriminatory criteria, give businesses advance notice of significant ranking changes, and create a clear process for businesses to raise concerns.
What changed
The second requirement puts Google's voluntary UK Data Portability API on a legal footing, letting users port their search data to authorised third parties.
The requirements follow the CMA's early-June order that let publishers opt out of AI Overviews, and sit under the UK's digital markets regime after Google was designated with strategic market status. Google has six months to implement fair ranking and three months for data portability, and has said its ranking systems are already fair and transparent. The orders apply only in the UK, but regulators elsewhere are watching.
Why it matters for advertisers
For you, this means AI Overviews fall under the same fairness and transparency obligations as organic ranking in the UK, with advance notice of major changes and a route to challenge them. Worth following implementation closely, since Objective-C criteria requirements and change notifications could give SEO and content teams more predictability to plan around.
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Original newsletter text and archive evidence
UK regulator orders Google to rank search results fairly and transparently
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has imposed two new conduct requirements on Google's search services. Under the Fair Ranking requirement, Google must rank organic results: including in AI Overviews, but not sponsored results: using objective and non-discriminatory criteria, give businesses advance notice of significant ranking changes, and create a clear process for businesses to raise concerns. The second requirement puts Google's voluntary UK Data Portability API on a legal footing, letting users port their search data to authorised third parties.
The requirements follow the CMA's early-June order that let publishers opt out of AI Overviews, and sit under the UK's digital markets regime after Google was designated with strategic market status. Google has six months to implement fair ranking and three months for data portability, and has said its ranking systems are already fair and transparent. The orders apply only in the UK, but regulators elsewhere are watching.
For you, this means AI Overviews fall under the same fairness and transparency obligations as organic ranking in the UK, with advance notice of major changes and a route to challenge them. Worth following implementation closely, since Objective-C criteria requirements and change notifications could give SEO and content teams more predictability to plan around.
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