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CMA places search ranking and data portability requirements on Google

Google sign on a building
Move comes after Google was given strategic market status (SMS) last year. Photo: 400tmax/Getty Images

Regulator wants changes in how search results are ranked, and more user control over moving and sharing personal data with third parties.

Google has been asked by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to improve transparency and fairness in how search results are ranked, after complaints from the business community that current ranking practices are neither fair nor transparent.

The UK’s competition watchdog has introduced two new conduct requirements for Google’s