Your commercial news round-up: Google AI, Universal, water contamination, Lloyds

Ellie Nicholl (she/her) is senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: three minutes

Have you been keeping up with the commercial news? Google is set to change how AI summaries appear in search results and the UK government has announced a major investment in Europe’s first Universal theme park. Meanwhile, South West Water (SWW) has been fined over a contamination outbreak and Lloyds has restored services after a major banking disruption.

• The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has introduced a “world-first” move forcing Google to give publishers more control over how their content is used in AI-generated search results. This follows concerns that Google’s AI overviews are reducing website traffic by answering users’ questions directly, meaning fewer people click through to original sources. The CMA stated that Google makes up more than 90% of UK search activity, making it a critical source for online publishers. Under the new rules, publishers can stop their content being used in AI features without losing visibility in standard search results. The CMA said the move will strengthen publishers’ negotiating power and give them greater control over their content.
  
  Google will also have to provide clearer information about how content is used in AI tools, including data on how these features affect engagement. The intervention reflects Google’s dominant role in UK search activity and aims to create a fairer digital economy. The company has nine months to implement the changes, although some measures are expected sooner. Top of FormBottom of FormNews Media Association CEO Theo Bamber described the change as “a significant step towards levelling the playing field and building a fair, transparent digital economy where premium content is properly respected and fairly compensated”.
   
• British taxpayers are set to provide £1.3 billion in funding to support Universal’s first European theme park, to be built near Bedford, which is expected to create around 20,000 construction jobs and a further 8,000 permanent roles once operational. The project was secured after the government offered significant financial backing, including investment in transport infrastructure, regional growth funding and a grant aimed at supporting community development and economic growth. Comcast, which owns NBC Universal and Sky, will invest more than £5 billion in building the resort over five years, with an additional £1 billion planned in the first decade of operation.
  
  The Universal United Kingdom Resort is due to open in 2031 and is expected to attract around 8.5 million visitors in its first year. Chancellor Rachel Reeves commented: “This landmark investment in the heart of the Oxford-to-Cambridge growth corridor will unlock nearly £50 billion of economic growth and create tens of thousands of jobs across Bedfordshire in construction, hospitality, creative and technology sectors.”
   
• SWW has been fined £1.8 million after a cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham in Devon in 2024, which left hundreds ill and affected up to 39,000 consumers, with boil water notices lasting up to two months. The company pleaded guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption under the Water Industry Act 1991. The outbreak was traced to animal faeces entering the water supply via a faulty, exposed air valve on agricultural land. The valve’s chamber was in poor condition, allowing contamination to occur. While the fine was described as a record, local MP Caroline Voaden stated that many "will feel the punishment dished out to SWW does not reflect the seriousness of the contamination". Voaden added that "we will never see the scale of reform needed to turn the industry around" unless the government accepts that "nobody should be making a profit from water". Following the incident, SWW has cleaned and flushed the network, installed new filtration and water purification systems, and was issued a legal notice requiring improvements to air valve risk management.
   
• Lloyds Banking Group has said its services are now fully restored after thousands of customers were unable to access online banking. A spokesperson for the bank apologised “for the inconvenience caused”. The group, which serves around 26 million customers across Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, began receiving reports of issues early on Wednesday 3 June. This latest disruption follows a March incident in which nearly half a million customers were affected by an IT glitch that exposed other people’s transactions or shared their own data.

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