While American publishers fight AI scraping one lawsuit at a time, a regulator on the other side of the Atlantic just did something no court has managed: it gave publishers a legally-mandated control over whether Google can feed their content into AI Overviews and AI Mode — without losing their place in search results.
01What the CMA did
On June 4, 2026, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) designated Google Search and search advertising as having Strategic Market Status (SMS) — the first time Britain has used its new Digital Markets powers against a big-tech platform. SMS isn’t a fine; it’s a standing designation that lets the CMA impose binding “conduct requirements” on how Google must behave.
The first and most consequential of those, for our industry, is the Publisher Conduct Requirement. In what the CMA itself called a “world first,” Google will be required to give publishers a control that determines whether their content can be used to power AI features in search — AI Overviews and AI Mode included. Critically, opting out of AI use is not supposed to cost a publisher its organic search ranking. Google will also be required to ensure publisher content is properly attributed in AI-generated answers.
02Why this is different
Publishers have spent two years stuck in an impossible bind: block Google’s AI and you risk vanishing from search entirely; allow it and you feed the engine that’s cannibalizing your referral traffic. The CMA’s intervention attacks the bundling itself. By forcing Google to separate “show up in search” from “be raw material for AI,” it removes the threat that has kept publishers compliant.
That changes the negotiating table. As the CMA framed it, the requirement puts news organizations “in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google.” An opt-out that carries no ranking penalty is leverage: now a licensing conversation can start from “we can simply turn you off” rather than “please pay us, but we can’t afford to leave.”
03The catch publishers shouldn’t miss
This is a UK-only remedy, at least for now. It does not directly help a US or EU publisher — though regulators rarely move in isolation, and the EU’s DMA and the US ad-tech case are watching closely. It also doesn’t answer the harder question: even with an off switch, should you flip it? Disappearing from AI answers protects your content but may accelerate your irrelevance in a search experience that’s becoming AI-first. The control is real; the strategy around it is yours to write.
For two years the open web has argued about whether copyright or contracts could rein in AI search.
04What publishers should do this quarter
05What marketers should do
06The bottom line
For two years the open web has argued about whether copyright or contracts could rein in AI search. The CMA just proved a regulator can do it faster — by making the off switch a legal right. The hard part now isn’t getting the control. It’s having the strategy and the leverage to use it well. (And this week Google began shipping the mechanics — see our companion piece on the new Search Console controls.)