The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday confirmed that Google has 'strategic market status' in the areas of general search and search advertising, citing the company's 'substantial and entrenched market power'. This is the first time the regulator has given a tech firm this designation under new digital market competition laws. The status grants the CMA the authority to impose changes on how Google operates its search business in the UK to foster more competition, with potential interventions to be discussed later in the year. The designation includes Google's AI-powered features like AI Overview and AI Mode, but not its Gemini AI assistant. In pre-market trading following the announcement, Alphabet's Class C shares saw a slight decline of 0.2%.