The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has handed publishers the power to block their content from Google’s AI Overviews. For brands relying on press coverage for AI visibility, the knock-on effects could be notable.
Online publishers have arguably been hit in all directions by the emergence of GenAI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. AI companies have taken publisher content, often without permission, to train their models and surface information to users — and tools like Google’s AI Overviews have famously caused web traffic to decline as a result. The Daily Mail, for instance, reported a 15 percent decline in digital advertising revenue.
Now, the CMA has announced that publishers will be able to block themselves from appearing in Google’s AI Overviews — the AI-powered summaries that sit at the top of Google’s search page. Up until now, opting out wasn’t possible without also opting out of traditional Google search altogether.
For publishers, this looks like a win. But for brands, the implications are more complicated. And with many publishers already in major lucrative AI licensing deals, will any feel compelled to opt-out?
Why Brands Should Pay Attention
The ruling matters beyond the publisher world because of how modern AI visibility – known as Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO – actually works. Unlike traditional SEO, where brands optimise content they own, GEO depends heavily on being cited in third-party sources. When a user asks an AI tool a question, the answer it surfaces is shaped by which brands appear across authoritative, independent outlets.
If publishers opt out of AI Overviews, that earned media coverage – the mentions and references brands have accumulated across trusted publications – may no longer feed into AI search results. As Daniel Houle, founder of AI search optimisation agency Azuro Digital, puts it: “If AI crawlers are prevented from accessing websites, then brands could lose access to some of the most valuable earned media impressions that would ultimately be generated from AI search products.”
That said, Houle notes it won’t be a total blackout. Most AI systems draw from a wide range of sources including publisher sites, corporate websites, public databases, and forums – so brands wouldn’t disappear from AI results entirely. But if a large number of trusted news publishers choose not to participate, brands may see a meaningful reduction in the independent validation that helps build credibility within the AI ecosystem.
Stephanie Himoff, Chief Commercial Supply Officer at adtech company Teads, is more blunt about the competitive stakes: “Blocking AI crawlers entirely is a gamble. It protects content but risks disappearing from the AI answers consumers already treat as truth. And the competitive math is brutal: if your rivals stay accessible and you don’t, you simply stop existing in those results.”
Will Publishers Actually Opt Out?
The bigger question is whether publishers will use this new power at all. Many have already entered lucrative AI licensing agreements – granting AI companies access to their content in exchange for payment. Publishers were, in many ways, pushed into these deals after their content was scraped without permission, leading to widespread copyright infringement lawsuits.
Now, with revenue flowing from those agreements, opting out of AI Overviews could mean walking away from an increasingly important distribution channel.
In a recent Press Gazette interview, Le Monde CEO Louis Dreyfus urged publishers to embrace licensing agreements, describing his company’s deal with AI giant OpenAI as a “win-win.” That sentiment suggests many publishers may see AI as an opportunity rather than a threat – making a mass opt-out unlikely, at least for now.
For brands, the upshot is that GEO strategies may need to become broader regardless of how publishers respond. Houle argues that brands which once relied on a handful of high-profile publications will now need to build credibility across a wider network – trade publications, expert opinions, original research, and high-quality owned properties – to maintain visibility in AI search environments. He continued: “Brands are more likely to achieve visibility in AI search environments when their expertise is consistently referenced across multiple trusted sources.”
The conversation around publisher control is also evolving beyond the CMA ruling. Elli Papadaki, SVP of Global Supply at programmatic company Onetag, points to frameworks like the IAB Tech Lab’s Content Monetisation Protocol (CoMP) as an indication of how impactful the CMA ruling will actually be. “Frameworks such as CoMP are already giving publishers greater control over how AI companies access their content,” she says, “allowing them to block certain operators while maintaining relationships with partners they have licensing agreements with.”
The CMA ruling hands publishers a new lever. Whether they pull it, and what that means for the brands mentioned in their pages, remains to be seen.
