The search giant says the competition watchdog has no power to make it offer users a choice of AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude.
Google has accused Britain’s competition watchdog of an “unlawful” attempt to force it to promote rival artificial intelligence services.
The company is fighting plans by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that would require it to offer users a choice of AI assistants, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, rather than steering them towards its own Gemini.
Google argues the proposals are anti-competitive and breach the CMA’s own rules.
Under the plans, Google would have to show users a pop-up screen offering a choice of rival search engines and AI assistants.
The CMA designated Google with “strategic market status” in general search in October 2025, under powers granted by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The status allows the regulator to impose conduct requirements on the company.
The watchdog said at the time that Google handled more than 90% of general search queries in the UK.
In January, the CMA opened a consultation on forcing Google to promote rival search engines. It widened the consultation in September to cover AI assistants.
Choice screens are already used in the EU, where the Digital Markets Act has required Google to offer users a choice of search engines on Android phones and in its Chrome browser since March 2024.
In its response to the consultation, Google said the CMA had explicitly excluded AI assistants from the original scope of its investigation. It argued that “the Consultation’s approach, if enacted in the [Conduct Requirements], would be unlawful”.
The company also said the plan could backfire on the smaller search engines the regulator set out to help. “Rival search services, whose growth the CMA intended to support, would be crowded out by already-successful AI assistants,” it said.
Google argued that steering users towards AI assistants through its search engine would harm publishers too, because AI tools send far fewer visitors to news websites than traditional search.
A Pew Research Center study in 2025 found that Google users who saw an AI-generated summary clicked on a link in 8% of visits, compared with 15% when no summary appeared.
A CMA spokesman said: “We are reviewing all responses ahead of making final decisions.”
The dispute comes amid fierce competition between technology giants over artificial intelligence. In 2023, Google declared a “code red” as ChatGPT threatened to displace its search engine.
It has since poured huge sums into Gemini to fend off the challenge and win market share.
The row adds to existing tensions between Google and the CMA. After it was given strategic market status, Google warned that “punitive regulations” risked turning the watchdog into a “roadblock to UK growth” and could delay the launch of new products in Britain.
The CMA has also clashed with other US technology groups. In 2023 it blocked Microsoft’s takeover of the video game maker Activision Blizzard, a decision Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, called “bad for Britain”. The watchdog cleared a restructured version of the deal later that year.
Concerns that the regulator’s approach was holding back growth led Rachel Reeves, then the chancellor, to oust CMA chairman Marcus Bokkerink in January 2025. He was replaced by Doug Gurr, a former head of Amazon UK, and Reeves told economic regulators to cut back on rules.
The CMA is separately considering whether to give Microsoft strategic market status over the way it bundles its Copilot AI assistant into business software.
That follows an investigation launched in May into whether Microsoft’s software ecosystem, used by around 20 million people in Britain each month, stifles competition.
Microsoft rejects the claim, saying its software, including Copilot, remains “open and interoperable” with rival platforms.
Separately, Amazon and TikTok were accused of “disregard” of Parliament after declining to put forward executives to answer MPs’ questions.
Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who chairs the business and trade select committee, has written to both companies asking them to reconsider appearing at a hearing on consumer protection on 3 November.
“Disregard of parliamentary oversight reflects badly on your company’s willingness to engage with policymakers, and hampers the committee’s ability to ensure regulation and protections are fit for purpose,” he wrote.
An Amazon spokesman said the company had offered written evidence instead, because no single witness could speak across all the topics, and that it had given evidence to the committee twice in recent years. TikTok was not available for comment.