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LONDON – Britain’s competition watchdog said on Tuesday it was launching a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s search and search advertising services.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it is seeking to assess whether Google has a “strategic market position” (SMS) under the new UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act (DMCC).
DMCC is a law designed to prevent anti-competitive behavior in digital markets. Designating a company to own a “short message” would give regulators the power to implement changes to prevent anti-competitive behavior.
CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator was investigating Google’s dominance of the search market to ensure a “level playing field” – especially as artificial intelligence is changing the way people search online.
“Our job is to ensure that people fully benefit from choice and innovation in search services and receive a fair deal, for example in how data is collected and stored,” Kader said.
“For businesses, whether you are a competing search engine, advertiser or news organization, we want to ensure a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed,” she added.
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