Google to Test Search DMA Compliance Change in the EU

Google announced this morning that it would test a change in Search to see whether it satisfies the needs of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

“The Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires substantial changes to the services Google can provide in Europe,” Google director Oliver Bethell writes. “Over the past year, we have made many changes to comply, including significantly redesigning certain features and completely removing others in Europe. This includes more than 20 modifications to Google Search, like the introduction of dedicated units and formats to boost the prominence of comparison sites for free in categories like flights, hotels, and shopping, among others.”

But meeting DMA requirements has also forced Google to remove certain features from Search, including displaying flight information, clickable maps, and other elements in results. This is done so that EU-based travel businesses aren’t disadvantaged, Google says, but now smaller businesses in the EU, airlines, hotel operators, and small retailers, have complained that the changes only help large online travel aggregators and comparison sites, while their traffic has declined by an average of 30 percent.

To meet these new needs, Google has proposed three more changes to the EU. These include a choice between comparison sites and supplier websites in results, expanded listings for both types of sites that display more information, and new ad units for comparison sites.

Google strikes a more conciliatory tone with DMA compliance than it has in its various antitrust investigations, charges, and trials. For example, it notes that the “the end goal [of the DMA is not] to prevent search engines from innovating and competing.” But meeting the needs of so many different companies of various sizes has proven difficult. And so it will test a change to Google Search while it waits on EU feedback to its proposed changes. The goal, it says, is to study the impact of these changes on the user experience and website traffic.

“We will be running a short test to remove the free hotel features from Google Search for users in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia,” Bethell explains. “The test will remove some of the features that have been at the focus of the debate, including the map that shows where hotels are and hotel results underneath it. Instead, we will show a list of individual links to websites without any of the additional features–similar to our old ‘ten blue links’ format from years ago. Results will return to normal once the test ends.”

Bethell adds that Google is “reluctant” to take this step, but it feels that it might be the right trade-off to meet the needs of the DMA and various stakeholders. And it will use the objective data it obtains to have “constructive discussions” with the EU.