DeFi Planet reported earlier this year that the European Union ordered Google, under its Digital Markets Act, to give OpenAI, other AI developers, and rival search engines access to parts of its Android platform and search services. That ruling was aimed at stopping Google from locking competitors out of the phones and browsers it controls.
Now Britain is pushing its own version of the same fight, aimed squarely at AI. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority put forward new proposals on Wednesday to give Android and Chrome users more say over which search service they use, including AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Under the plan, Google would have to show users a choice of search providers the first time they set up an Android phone or open Chrome, ask them once a year to confirm or change their default, and let any AI assistant that meets its technical and security standards appear on that choice screen.
The proposal would also require search providers to clearly credit publishers so users can see where information came from. CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said the rules are catching up to how people already search, noting that AI assistants are increasingly used as search tools but are currently left off Google’s choice screens entirely.
The proposal is open for feedback until October 9, with a final decision expected by the end of the year, building on rules the CMA introduced in June requiring Google to be more transparent about how its search rankings work.
AI companies are facing lawsuits over the same publisher complaints Britain wants to fix
The AI assistants regulators want to add to Google’s choice screen are meant to be fairer to publishers than Google’s own AI summaries. But some of those same AI companies are facing lawsuits from publishers over similar complaints.
CNN sued Perplexity in May 2026, saying it copied CNN’s articles, videos and images to create answers that were the same or very close to its original work. The New York Times filed a similar lawsuit against Perplexity in December 2025. Dow Jones and the New York Post, both owned by News Corp, sued the company in 2024. That case has now moved to the evidence stage after a judge refused to dismiss it.
Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster also sued Perplexity in September 2025. They later filed a similar case against OpenAI in March 2026, accusing ChatGPT of reproducing almost 100,000 of their articles.
Not every publisher has gone to court. Getty Images, for example, chose to reach a deal with Perplexity that allows the company to use its content. But the lawsuits all raise a similar concern that AI companies are using publishers’ work without giving them enough credit or paying for it.
That creates an awkward problem for Britain. The government wants to use AI assistants such as Perplexity to give publishers more protection from Google’s AI summaries, while those same assistants are facing many of the same complaints from publishers.
Countries are cracking down on search giants
Britain and the EU aren’t acting alone, several major economies have been running the same playbook on Google for years, and some have gone after their own homegrown search leaders too. Japan passed a law forcing Google to start showing search and browser choice screens on Android phones from December 2025.
India’s competition authority won its own antitrust case against Google over how it bundled apps on Android. South Korea passed a law requiring Google to open its Play Store to outside payment systems, and separately fined it over antitrust violations involving gaming apps. The United States has its own case running in parallel, where a federal judge ruled Google held an illegal monopoly in search. China hasn’t needed to do any of this, but only because Google Search has been blocked there since 2010, so there’s no default to fix.
But governments are not only targeting Google. South Korea has also taken action against Naver, its biggest domestic search company. Regulators found that Naver had changed its shopping search algorithm in ways that pushed products from its own marketplace higher than those of rivals. The company was fined about 26.6 billion won and ordered to stop the practice. A South Korean court later upheld the decision, although the Supreme Court overturned that ruling in 2025 and sent the case back for further review.
Russia has taken a similar approach with Yandex, its leading domestic search engine. In 2021, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service said Yandex appeared to use its dominant position to favour its own digital services in search results and required changes to how those results were displayed.
The concern is that any search company with enough control over what users see can use that position to favour its own products or services. That is why regulators are increasingly looking at search rankings, default settings and the way platforms present information, whether the company is Google, Naver or Yandex.
Enjoyed this? Bookmark DeFi Planet, explore related topics, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and CoinMarketCap Community for seamless access to high-quality industry insights
Take control of your crypto portfolio with DEFI PLANET PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.
