Google, Bing face probe as ACCC begins quality testing

The competition watchdog is putting search engines on notice, announcing plans to scrutinise the competitive nature and quality of popular services including Google and Bing.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

The nation’s competition watchdog is putting search engine’s on notice, announcing plans to scrutinise the competitive nature and quality of popular services including Google and Bing.

The inquiry into the search engine giants, announced on Monday, will call for consumers, businesses and experts to recall recent results and consider whether recent changes to laws in Europe have affected the results they see.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has released an issues paper as part of its Digital Platform Services Inquiry which has taken place for several years.

Under the inquiry, the watchdog is continuing to put different aspects of consumer technology offerings under the scope, with the most recent inquiry taking a dive into the smart home device market.

The new probe into search engines comes are new laws and regulations under consider in the UK and Europe will require search engines to promote competition, said ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

“We’ve seen new laws introduced overseas that place obligations on so-called gatekeeper search engines and the emergence of new technologies, like generative AI, that have changed the way consumers search for information online and may be impacting the quality of the service they are receiving,” she said.

The ACCC wants to know whether the general public still believes search engines are useful and whether they’ve noticed changes to the quality of the results they see.

The increased scrutiny arrives at a time when artificial intelligence is set to majorly impact the way search engines perform.

AI-powered search engines and tools that are capable of scouring the internet and providing answers to queries are growing and these results aren’t influenced by the same advertising constraints and requirements as older search engines including Google.

Social media platforms are also increasingly being used as a method of searching or finding visual results to queries. Platforms including Chinese-owned TikTok are increasing competition against more traditional search engines and platforms like YouTube, where answers to queries are often cut into short, attention-grabbing videos infused with marketing strategies, flashing lights and popular music.

The ACCC wants to know whether the general public still believes search engines such as Google are useful. Picture: Sebastien Bozon/AFP

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said while new technologies including artificial intelligence have a major impact on the way people use search engines, they weren’t the focus of this particular inquiry.

“We are eager to hear from businesses and consumers about their experiences with general search services to better understand how regulatory and industry developments are affecting the level of competition and consumers in the market for general search services.” Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.

This isn’t the first time the watchdog has gone after search engines, with the ACCC launching an inquiry into the matter in September 2021.

At that time, just over 12 months before ChatGPT was launched publicly, the ACCC took issue with Google’s search engine being pre-installed on devices.

The following year the ACC recommended new laws be put in place that promote more choice for consumers and lower barriers for potential competitors.

The ACCC has also taken aim at “bundling” which is where a business requires a service be sold as a package or only discounted if purchased together, and “self-preferencing”, which refers to a service giving preferential treatment to its own products when they compete against others.