The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered Google to give publishers the ability to keep their content out of AI Search features such as AI Overviews and to block that content from being used to fine‑tune Google's models. In response, Google added a new toggle in Search Console that allows sites to opt out.
What the toggle does and what happens in practice
According to Google, publishers that enable the opt‑out will be excluded from AI Overviews and their content will not be available for model fine‑tuning. In practice, however, sites that switch the toggle on report receiving no traffic or impressions from generative AI surfaces, while their traditional search rankings remain unchanged.
The CMA hailed the measure as a "world first" that strengthens publishers' negotiating position. The practical effect looks different: with Google holding over 90% of search market share in the UK, it is effectively the only gateway to readers. That market structure creates two dead ends for publishers:
- Staying in AI Overviews can mean that Google’s AI answers draw on a publisher’s content while the publisher's click‑throughs decline.
- Opting out removes a publisher from the new surfaces where user attention is increasingly concentrated, likewise cutting them off from that traffic.
Why this matters for publishers
The old implicit bargain in search was that publishers provided content in exchange for traffic and visibility. Generative AI features change that balance: they can use publisher content to generate answers without routing the same traffic back to the publishers. The opt‑out toggle therefore does not create an alternative path to readers; it simply forces publishers to choose between two outcomes that both reduce their access to audience. Seen this way, the CMA‑described strengthening of publishers’ leverage is at best limited.
Conclusion
The Search Console opt‑out complies with the CMA’s requirement and offers a formal right to block use of content in certain AI features, but under current market conditions it does not provide a meaningful remedy for publishers seeking to preserve reader access. As long as Google controls the vast majority of search traffic, flipping the opt‑out switch can result in significant loss of exposure either way, so the regulatory development may have only limited practical benefit for publishers.
