Google has modified its web search results for European users to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company warns that these changes will degrade the service quality for local users and increase costs for regional businesses.
The company describes this as the most significant decline in service quality over its 29-year history. Google claims that while regulators believe the changes level the playing field, they will primarily benefit price comparison platforms like Expedia and Booking.com, while businesses will only be shown via websites, phone numbers, and addresses.
In June, European authorities fined Google €460 million for favoring its own services in categories such as shopping, hotels, transport, and sports. The European Commission gave the company 60 days to implement changes or face a fine of up to 5% of its global annual turnover.
The updated search results will feature a specialized search engine block at the top, followed by smaller blocks with less information. A carousel of hotels, airlines, and restaurants will be displayed below, but without real-time pricing. Google's ranking algorithm will determine the order.
Google notes that previous DMA-related changes led to a 30% drop in free direct booking traffic for European companies. User tests of the new model have already been conducted, and users expressed dissatisfaction due to the necessity of re-entering search queries.