Google AI Overviews opt-out: what UK regulated firms should know

From 3 December 2026 Google must let UK sites opt out of AI Overviews and AI Mode without losing rankings. What it means for regulated firms.

REGULATED INDUSTRIES SEOAI SEARCH

Jorge Jaroslavsky

11/12/20264 min read

Google's AI opt-out: what UK regulated firms should know, from 3 December 2026 – JJSEO

Blog › AI search

If someone asks Google about your products, fees or eligibility rules today, there is a good chance the first thing they read isn’t your website. It’s an AI Overview, or an answer in AI Mode, written by Google from your pages and other people’s, in words you never approved.

That is about to change in the UK. Not completely, and not overnight, but enough that regulated firms should look at it before the end of the year.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered Google to let website owners keep their content out of AI Overviews and AI Mode without losing their normal rankings, and to report how much traffic those AI answers actually send. Google’s deadline is 3 December 2026.

In short

What the CMA has ordered Google to do

In June 2026 the CMA used its new digital markets powers to impose its first “conduct requirement” on Google Search. In plain terms, Google must:

Let you keep your content out of the AI features in Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode), first by section of your site and later page by page.
Let you keep it out of training for its generative AI models, and out of AI answers outside Search, such as the Gemini assistant.
Not penalise you for it: opting out must not push you down in ordinary search results.
Attribute your content clearly and accurately when it does use it, with a clear route back to the original source.
Report impressions, clicks and click-through rate for its AI features, plus referral data, so you can judge the quality of that traffic.

“Publisher” doesn’t mean newspapers

Most coverage has framed this as a fight between Google and the news industry. The CMA’s own wording is wider: a publisher is any party that makes content available on the web.

If your firm has a website, you are a publisher in this story. That includes a broker’s product pages, a funeral plan provider’s price guide and a dental practice’s treatment pages.

Why it matters more for regulated firms

The AI writes in its own words

An AI answer doesn’t quote your carefully worded page. It summarises it, sometimes alongside a competitor’s page or a forum thread. Fees, eligibility criteria, cancellation terms and risk warnings are exactly the details that get compressed or lost.

Your sign-off stops at your website

Your copy may go through compliance review before it goes live. Google’s summary of it doesn’t. Your customers, though, will read it as if it came from you, and they will arrive with those expectations when they call.

Until now, you’ve had no numbers

Google shows impressions for its AI features, but clicks from AI answers are mixed in with ordinary web clicks. Without that data, deciding whether AI search helps or hurts your firm has been guesswork.

Opt out or stay in? Neither is automatic

Opting out has a clear cost: the pages you withhold won’t be used as sources in AI Overviews or AI Mode, so you lose that exposure. Your normal rankings shouldn’t be affected; that is the point of the no-penalty rule.

Staying in has a cost too, just a less visible one. In my view the right answer is rarely all or nothing. It depends on which pages carry figures and terms that must be read exactly, and which are general guidance you would be happy to see quoted.

Where staying in usually makes sense

Explanatory guides, FAQs and educational content. Being cited as the source builds authority, and a paraphrase is unlikely to do harm.

Where a partial opt-out may be worth considering

Five things to do before and after 3 December

Pages with rates, fees, product terms or eligibility rules, especially if they sit in their own section of the site. Section-level control comes first; page-level control is due around March 2027.

Ask Google’s AI Mode the questions your customers ask, and note what it says about your firm and your competitors.
List the pages that carry figures, terms or regulated wording, and check whether they sit in their own section of the site.
After 3 December, look for the new AI click data in Search Console. On 2 November Google said it had nothing to announce yet, so it may arrive late.
Decide section by section, not for the whole site at once.
Review again when page-level controls arrive, around March 2027.

Key dates

Frequently asked questions

Will opting out hurt my normal Google rankings?

It shouldn’t. The CMA’s requirement says Google must not penalise sites for using the controls, for example by ranking them lower elsewhere in Search.

Does this apply outside the UK?

The requirement is a UK one, imposed under UK competition law. Whether Google offers the same controls elsewhere is its own decision.

Do I need to do anything on 3 December?

No. Nothing changes unless you choose to use the controls. But it is a good moment to look at what Google’s AI says about your firm, because soon you will have data to judge it by.

Not sure what Google’s AI says about your firm?

I review how AI search describes regulated businesses and give you a clear, written roadmap: what to leave in, what to protect, and what to fix on your own pages. No long contracts.

Get in touch

What happens

The CMA imposes the publisher conduct requirement on Google

Google’s deadline to comply

Google’s first compliance report to the CMA is due

Page-level controls are due

Date

3 June 2026

3 January 2027

3 December 2026

Around March 2027

Jorge Jaroslavsky is an SEO consultant for regulated industries, based in Leeds. He spent 24 years as an insurance broker before 20 years in SEO.