The British competition watchdog announced Tuesday it launched an investigation into Google's search engine market status and its impacts on consumers and businesses, including advertisers, news publishers and rival search engines.
The investigation could lead to the U.S. tech giant being handed "strategic market status," subjecting it to special requirements under new U.K. regulations, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement.
The CMA will probe whether "Google is using its position to prevent innovation by others" in the search engine market and whether it gives "self-preference" to its own services.
It will also look into "potential exploitative conduct" including investigating the collection and use of large quantities of consumer data without informed consent.
Under the U.K.'s tougher new regulation that came into force this year, the watchdog has been given more powers to develop and enforce conduct requirements on companies to prevent anti-competitive behavior in digital markets.
"Millions of people and businesses across the U.K. rely on Google's search and advertising services – with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 U.K. businesses advertising there," CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in the statement.
"That's why it's so important to ensure these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses and that there is a level playing field," she added.
Google said on Tuesday it would continue to engage with the British competition regulator after it used new powers to launch an investigation into the tech giant's search services.
"We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the U.K. to benefit from helpful and cutting-edge services," a Google spokesperson told Reuters via email.
The CMA's move comes after U.S. prosecutors in November argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data, and search results with rivals, and take a range of other measures to end its monopoly on online search.
Under its new powers, the CMA must designate firms as having Strategic Market Status (SMS) – in relation to digital activity before it can investigate.
The probe is in its preliminary stages with the CMA inviting comments at the first stage to determine the scope of the investigation.
It aims to reach a final outcome on the probe by October.
