The EU continues to go after Google search practices it sees as anticompetitive.
The EU continues to go after Google search practices it sees as anticompetitive.
As the world's largest search engine, Google is often a target of Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which seeks to rein in Big Tech. The European Commission hit Google with a hefty 460 million euro ($543 million) fine in July for preferring its own services in searches for travel and shopping. Google has now made changes in accordance with the European Union's wishes, but it claims the result is a massive reduction in search quality.
If you don't live in Europe and perform a search for, say, hotels, Google will helpfully provide myriad sponsored links, booking recommendations, and price-comparison tools in its results. The problem is that this content isn't organic - Google includes links and offers contingent on its business interests. To get to the regular search results for these types of lucrative searches, you have to scroll way down the page. Companies that partner with Google can get more exposure, but the European Commission says this creates an unlevel playing field.
"To comply with DMA requirements, we're making significant changes to Search in Europe," Google's Nick Fox told Reuters . "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."
For Google users in Europe, features like instant pricing and availability for hotels and flights will be going away. Instead, these travel-oriented searches will produce a link to a specialized search engine at the top of the page, followed by two others with fewer details. Below that, Google will display a carousel of hotels, airlines, or restaurants without real-time pricing or availability. The ranking must be determined by Google's search algorithm rather than its business interests.
These changes are still rolling out in the EU. Google has not provided an exact timeline to get it done, but the company was given 60 days to comply. That puts the deadline on September 23, after which Google can be fined up to 5 percent of its global revenue under the DMA. These search results will not change in other regions.
The way Google displays travel results has been a bone of contention in Europe for several years. In 2024, Google said that EU-mandated changes led to a 30 percent drop in free direct booking traffic to businesses. That was before the DMA came into force. With the European Commission now requiring more search changes, Google suggests there will be additional traffic reductions.
The search giant also claims it is only giving people what they want. Google says it has conducted tests on these changes, and users didn't like the results as much. That's not necessarily surprising, though. People searching for travel info might like having prices and interactive maps included on the booking page, and they may not care if that's anticompetitive - they're just looking for a cheap holiday.
Interestingly, Google's cited evidence of user dissatisfaction is that people have to retype their search queries more often with the Euro-safe travel results. But doesn't Google like higher search volume? Often, when Google talks about its shift to AI in search , it points out that AI has led to people performing more searches , and that's framed as a good thing. However, people can also run more searches because they aren't finding what they want. In this case, though, Google may not be able to monetize those "extra" searches as effectively, so it's a bad thing.
Google and other companies designated as "gatekeepers" under the DMA continue to oppose the law as the EU steps up enforcement. Meanwhile, the US government has threatened the bloc with economic sanctions if it continues to fine US tech giants.
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