AI Regulation Tracker / Regulatory action
The UK Just Made Google Let Publishers Opt Out of AI Overviews
On June 3, 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority imposed a publisher conduct requirement on Google under its Strategic Market Status for general search. Publishers get real controls to keep their content out of AI features in search, and Google has nine months to build them.
The UK competition regulator has ordered Google to give publishers effective controls over how their content feeds AI features in search, including AI Overviews. Publishers can keep their content out of those AI features while still being indexed for normal search, opt out of having their content used to fine-tune AI models, and expect clear attribution links when their content shows up in AI-generated results. Google also has to hand publishers detailed engagement metrics and publish plain-language information on how content gets used. This sits under the Strategic Market Status designation the CMA finalized on October 10, 2025. Google has nine months to implement, with the important controls arriving sooner. It is UK-only, and it binds Google, not publishers. There is no US equivalent yet, so for now this is something American firms watch rather than something they can invoke.
Regulatory briefing
- Action
- Publisher conduct requirement imposed on Google
- Regulator
- UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
- Legal basis
- Conduct requirement under Google's Strategic Market Status (SMS) designation for general search services
- SMS designation
- Finalized October 10, 2025
- Announced
- June 3, 2026
- Implementation
- Nine months to build the controls, with the CMA expecting important parts available to publishers well before that deadline
- Scope
- United Kingdom only; the obligation binds Google, not publishers
- Status
- In force
What Google actually has to do
The conduct requirement lays out a set of obligations rather than a single switch. Under it, Google has to:
- Give publishers effective controls to keep their content out of AI features in search, including AI Overviews, and to do that separately from ordinary search indexing so a publisher does not have to disappear from search to leave the AI layer.
- Let publishers opt out of having their content used to fine-tune AI models.
- Attribute publisher content with clear links inside AI-generated results.
- Provide publishers with detailed engagement metrics.
- Publish plain-language information explaining how publisher content is used.
The piece that matters most is the separation. For a while the practical complaint from publishers was that the only way to stay out of AI Overviews was to block Google from crawling the page, which also meant vanishing from the blue links that still send traffic. The CMA's requirement is meant to break that bundle so a publisher can be present in search and absent from the AI summary.
Who this binds and who it does not
This is a UK measure aimed at one company. It binds Google because Google carries Strategic Market Status for general search, which is the designation the CMA finalized in October 2025 after concluding Google holds substantial and entrenched market power there. It does not impose anything on publishers, and it does not reach other search or AI providers. A newspaper, a trade publication, or a company that runs a content-heavy site in the UK is the intended beneficiary. Google is the party that has to do the work.
Nine months is the outer bound. The CMA has said it expects the important controls to reach publishers well before that deadline, and it has told Google to report on progress every six months in the first year. So the timeline is real, but the early controls should show up before the full build is finished.
What this means if you publish from the US
There is no American version of this. The CMA can act because Parliament gave it a designation-and-conduct-requirement regime, and the SMS status it hung this on is a UK legal construct. A US publisher cannot walk into Google and demand these controls on the strength of a British order. So the honest framing is watchfulness, not entitlement.
That said, two things make it worth tracking. First, when a platform builds a control to satisfy one regulator, that machinery sometimes ends up available more broadly, because maintaining a UK-only version of an opt-out is its own cost. I would not plan around that, but I would watch for it. Second, the CMA has now written down, in an enforceable form, the specific asks that publishers everywhere have been making: separate the AI opt-out from the search index, attribute with links, and show the engagement data. That gives anyone arguing the same case elsewhere a concrete reference point instead of a wish list.
The move to make now
If you run a publishing operation with any UK footprint, the practical step is to get ready to use the controls the moment they appear rather than to wait for the nine-month mark. Decide in advance what you actually want, because keeping your content out of AI Overviews is a real trade. You hold onto the click when a reader has to visit you, and you give up whatever visibility the AI summary would have handed you. That is a business decision, not a compliance one, and it is worth having an answer before the toggle exists. If you publish only in the US, the task is smaller. Know that the control now exists somewhere, keep an eye on whether it travels, and keep your own crawler and licensing posture deliberate rather than accidental.
The UK now forces Google to let publishers leave AI Overviews without leaving search. That is a genuine lever, but only in the UK and only against Google. Treat it as a signal of where the argument is heading, decide ahead of time whether staying out of AI summaries is worth the traffic trade, and do not assume the same control is available to you in the US yet.
- Primary source
- CMA: fairer deal for publishers and improved Google Search services in the UK (GOV.UK, June 3, 2026)
- Corroborating
- CMA Strategic Market Status designation for Google general search, finalized October 10, 2025 (CMA)
- How to verify
- Open the GOV.UK announcement; it sets out the publisher conduct requirement, the opt-out for AI features including AI Overviews, the fine-tuning opt-out, the attribution and metrics obligations, and the nine-month implementation window.
Frequently asked
What did the CMA order Google to do?
On June 3, 2026 the CMA imposed a publisher conduct requirement on Google under its Strategic Market Status for general search. Google has to give publishers effective controls to keep their content out of AI features including AI Overviews, separate from normal search indexing, let publishers opt out of content being used to fine-tune AI models, attribute publisher content with clear links in AI-generated results, provide detailed engagement metrics, and publish plain-language information on how content is used.
Can publishers stay in Google Search and still leave AI Overviews?
Yes, that is the point of the requirement. The control to keep content out of AI features is meant to work separately from ordinary search indexing, so a publisher no longer has to block crawling and lose search traffic just to stay out of the AI summary.
Does this apply outside the United Kingdom?
No. It is UK-only and it binds Google, not publishers. There is no US equivalent yet, so American firms should treat it as something to watch rather than a control they can currently invoke. Google has nine months to implement, with important controls expected sooner.
- The judgment call this order forces, whether to trade AI-summary visibility for the click, is the kind of decision we work through in The Leveraged Attorney.
- Not sure where to start? Take the two-minute quiz.