On Sept. 8, Google rolled out Europe search changes under the Digital Markets Act, warning that the result will degrade the user experience and raise costs for EU businesses. The company called it the biggest quality cut in its 29-year history.
The new layout favors vertical and price-comparison sites — hotels, airlines and restaurants, including players such as Expedia and Booking — over simple local listings. One specialized engine leads, two others follow, and a carousel of real-time prices sits below with key price data stripped out.
The move follows a €460 million ($534 million) July fine over favoring Google’s own shopping, hotels, transport and sports services. Google has 60 days to comply or face periodic penalties of up to 5% of worldwide turnover.
Nick Fox said the rules force Google to degrade the experience and send more business to intermediaries. The changes do not affect searches outside the EU. Earlier DMA changes were linked to roughly a 30% drop in free direct-booking traffic; a separate Play anti-steering fine reached €430 million, taking total EU antitrust penalties to about €10.38 billion.
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