By Jessica Davies
Publication Date: 2026-06-08 04:01:00
Publishers have finally won the right to keep their articles out of Google’s AI search results. The harder question now is whether that right is usable when the system keeps them opted in by default, and Google withholds the AI-specific data they’d need to judge if pulling out is worth the risk.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Google to give publishers greater control and transparency over how their content is used in AI search, including an opt-out from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI summaries in Discover, clearer attribution, and improved reporting on how content appears in AI-generated results. Publishers will also be able to opt out of AI model training.
The ruling, handed down last week, is the first time a major regulator has forced Google to give publishers a formal say over how their work is fed into AI features in search.
Google issued its own blog the same day as the CMA announcement, saying that while the CMA ruling applies to U.K….