U.K. orders Google to let publishers opt out of AI scraping

4 JUNE 2026

Google must allow news sites to opt out of having their online content scraped to feed AI overviews and other artificial intelligence services and features for British users, regulators said.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it was ordering Google to give online publishers the option, in what it called a “world first.”
The watchdog is seeking to loosen the U.S. tech giant’s stranglehold on the U.K’s online search market by using new digital powers to force changes to the company’s business practices.
Under the decision, Google will have to give publishers “effective tools” to prevent their content from being used to power the company’s generative artificial intelligence services and its AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Google will also have to properly cite publisher content in AI-generated search results by using clear links, and let publishers opt out of having their content used to fine-tune AI models.
The CMA’s ruling was expected, because it had released draft proposals at the start of the year after using its new digital powers to label Google a “ strategic” player in online search advertising.
It previously found that news publishers had suffered a drop in traffic since Google rolled out its AI Overviews.