The CMA has designated Google as having "strategic market status" in the search and search advertising markets, which means the company has such "a substantial and entrenched" position that it requires special regulations to ensure fair competition.

Britain’s antitrust watchdog is labeling Google a “strategic” player in the online search advertising market, paving the way for regulators to force the company to change its business practices to ensure more competition in that market.

Google may be forced to loosen control of search engine in UK - The competition watchdog has used new powers to hand the tech firm strategic market status, which could see conduct requirements imposed on it.

Competition watchdog can now meddle in how the tech giant runs the biggest wing of its organization The UK's competition watchdog has officially slapped Google with "strategic market status," a new legal label that gives the regulator far-reaching powers to rein in how the search giant runs its empire.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is urging regulators to rein in Google’s AI practices, arguing the tech giant’s dominance in search gives it an unfair edge in the AI race.

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority said legal tests were met to designate Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google with strategic market status in general search and search advertising services.

Today the CMA designated Google’s ‘Mobile Platform’ (Android, Play, Chrome, Blink) with ‘strategic market status’.

New regulation from the UK’s competition authority means Google may be forced to make major changes in the way that people use its search engine.