LONDON — Britain's competition regulator on Friday activated new powers to regulate Google 's search activities, putting the U.S. tech giant in the firing line for further regulatory action.

The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it is designating Google with "strategic market status" for its general search and search advertising services. It follows a near nine-month investigation in which the watchdog concluded that the tech giant has "substantial and entrenched market power."

The watchdog said that Google's Gemini AI assistant was not within the scope of the designation, although other AI-based search features were included.

"We have found that Google maintains a strategic position in the search and search advertising sector – with more than 90% of searches in the

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