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LONDON — Britain’s competition watchdog announced Tuesday the opening of a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s search and advertising services.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it was seeking to assess whether Google had “strategic market status” (SMS) under the UK’s new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act ( DMCC).
The DMCC is a law that aims to prevent anticompetitive behavior in digital markets. Designating a company as having an “SMS” would give the regulator the power to impose changes to prevent anti-competitive behavior.
AlphabetGoogle was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said the regulator was investigating Google’s dominance of the search market to ensure a “level playing field”, especially as artificial intelligence changes the way people search online.
“It is our duty to ensure that people benefit fully from choice and innovation in search services and get fair treatment, for example in the way their data is collected and stored,” Cardell said.
“And for businesses, whether you’re a competing search engine, advertiser or news agency, we want to ensure a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed,” she added .
This decision by the CMA follows an attempt by the US Department of Justice to force Google to divest its Chrome browser. The DOJ filed a request to break up the internet giant after finding that it had a monopoly on the search market.
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