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Fair Search for Small Business

A call for transparency, fairness and opportunity in online search. Small businesses invest savings, create jobs, and support communities — but often struggle to be discovered online. We call for clearer rules and independent oversight so legitimate new businesses can compete fairly.

Our specific ask

Greater transparency about how search trust is earned, faster verification for legitimate businesses, a meaningful appeals process, and independent oversight of dominant search platforms — without guaranteeing rankings or protecting low-quality sites.

Evidence base

New e-commerce sites are routinely indexed but receive little meaningful search visibility during the critical first months of trading.
Diagnostic feedback offered to small business owners is generic and rarely actionable.
A small number of platforms hold significant influence over which businesses consumers can discover online.

Government response tracker

Status: Awaiting response. We update this when government publishes a formal position relevant to this ask.