• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, March 18, 2026

Google posted a response to the U.K.'s Competition and Market Authority's goals on Wednesday as the CMA wraps up its review process this month.

The post ensures fairness and that the company will promote publisher choice and controls across its platforms while protecting user experiences.

The company said it is working with the CMA to support the U.K. organization's goals, and offered some ideas on how new digital rules can best serve the British public -- including keeping search results “free and fair” and giving publishers “even greater control.”

Google stated in the blog post that its developers are working on updates to its controls that allow sites to "specifically opt-out of generative AI features in Search," but also supporting features like AI Overviews that "make links to sources more prominent, helping people discover web content remains central to our approach."

The biggest challenge in the United States for Google AI Mode could become that links are tied to content that serves up alongside the AI responses.

Google described the design for its U.K. ranking systems as one that shows the most relevant, highest-quality results for queries, and explained how it does not give its own products special treatment, which the CMA had confirmed in an earlier review process.

Some third-party proposals -- although this is unsupported by evidence -- could expose Google's systems and users to manipulation and abuse. This would make it more difficult to fight spam, and ultimately slow Google’s ability to launch improvements for U.K. users, the company said.

"We will continue to work constructively with the CMA to find practical solutions that benefit users, publishers, and businesses across the UK," Google wrote.

The post follows the February 25 deadline for Google's feedback on search rules. The CMA will spend March reviewing these submissions. This is the period when they weigh Google's proposed "AI opt-out" for publishers against the demands of rivals.

Feedback was received by a variety of companies and organizations, some redacted, but all posted online. 

"I think that the core remaining problem of Choice Screen remains that they are shown at a time [when] the user simply does not have the right information to make an informed choice or the user is trying to achieve something and are presented with a difficult choice," according to Brave Software's submitted comment.

A final decision on these requirements are expected shortly after this review period.