03:39 AM EST, 01/15/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Google's ( GOOG ) response in the final paragraph.)

Alphabet's Google ( GOOG ) is under investigation for its market status in search and search advertising activities by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority as the first target of new digital markets competition rules that came into effect on Jan. 1, the regulator said Tuesday.

The regulator said the probe launched on Tuesday "will assess Google's ( GOOG ) position in search and search advertising services and how this impacts consumers and businesses including advertisers, news publishers, and rival search engines."

Under the new rules, the regulator said it can designate firms with "strategic market status" in a particular digital field and impose conduct requirements or competition-bolstering interventions on them.

Google ( GOOG ) referred MT Newswires to a blog posting in which it stated: "We look forward to engaging constructively and laying out how our services benefit UK consumers and also businesses, as well as the trade-offs inherent in any new regulations."