Alphabet’s Google has rolled out a revised layout for search results across Europe in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a move the company says will lower the quality of search and impose additional costs on European businesses.
Google characterises the changes as the largest reduction in its search service quality since the launch of its search engine 29 years ago, according to a company official. The new presentation, required by the DMA, elevates certain specialised comparison services in search results and reduces the visibility and functionality previously available to direct providers in sectors such as hotels, airlines and restaurants.
Under the new format, Google will feature one specialised search engine at the top of a results page, followed by two other specialised engines displayed with fewer details. Below these will appear a carousel for categories such as hotels, airlines and restaurants. That carousel will list providers but strip out helpful real-time features, for example live prices, that users had previously relied on. Google said the order of these specialised services will be determined by its algorithm.
Google has argued that the EU framed the DMA changes as a way to level the advertising field for companies. The company disputes that framing, saying the practical effect is to favour vertical search services - often called price comparison sites - including well-known travel-focused intermediaries, while reducing the prominence of individual businesses that appeared previously with links, phone numbers and addresses.
In a statement, Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice-president for knowledge and information, said: "To comply with DMA requirements, we’re making significant changes to Search in Europe. These changes degrade the user experience for Europeans - boosting online intermediaries at the expense of local businesses, and removing helpful features people rely on every day. Users outside the EU will not be impacted by these changes."
Google said it tested the new results with millions of European users and observed a high level of dissatisfaction, including users needing to retype queries to find what they wanted. The company also noted past DMA-related adjustments had reduced free, direct booking traffic to European businesses by 30 percent and said it expects the recent changes to have similar effects.
The move follows a July penalty of €460 million imposed on the company for favouring its own services in categories including shopping, hotels, transport and sports within search results, an action the EU said breached the DMA. The European Commission gave Google a 60-day deadline to comply with the DMA and warned the company could face periodic penalties of up to 5 percent of its total worldwide turnover if it failed to meet the requirements.
Google has accumulated total EU antitrust penalties of €10.38 billion over nearly two decades, the company said. The recent fines and mandated changes have also attracted public criticism from some U.S. political figures; the article notes that U.S. President Donald Trump criticised the EU fines and threatened to open a probe into what he described as the bloc "robbing" American companies.
Google warned that the revised results will increase costs for European companies that depend on search-driven traffic and that users in the EU will experience fewer helpful features in everyday searches. The company also emphasised that these changes are limited to the EU and will not affect users elsewhere.
As the DMA compliance process advances, the practical consequences identified by Google include elevated prominence for intermediaries such as price comparison sites, reduced direct referral traffic for businesses in travel-related verticals, and removal of real-time functionality in key result formats. The company’s statement and its user testing form the basis of its assessment of both commercial and user-facing impacts within the EU.
Data points from Google’s statement and regulatory actions cited in this report:
- July fine imposed on Google: €460 million.
- EU compliance timeframe given by the Commission: 60 days or risk periodic penalties up to 5 percent of worldwide turnover.
- Reported reduction in free, direct booking traffic to European businesses from prior DMA-related changes: 30 percent.
- Total EU antitrust penalties for Google over nearly two decades: €10.38 billion.
- Currency conversion noted in the company’s statements: $1 = 0.8611 euros.