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Google changes EU spam policy amid threat of antitrust action
Search giant exempts European publishers from site reputation abuse penalties
Brussels: Google is changing the rules of the search game in Europe. Alphabet’s Google said on Friday that it would modify its spam policy in the European Economic Area (EEA), addressing concerns from EU regulators that could have exposed the company to a hefty antitrust fine.
The move follows complaints from publishers about Google’s site reputation abuse policy, which targets websites that publish third-party content to manipulate search rankings by leveraging the reputation and ranking signals of the host website. The practice is commonly known as parasite SEO.
The European Union said its monitoring had found that the policy could demote news media and other publishers in Google Search when their websites carried content from commercial partners.
Under the revised approach, from 30 August, manual actions taken by Google to demote websites under the site reputation abuse policy will not apply to users in the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Google said the policy itself will remain unchanged outside the EEA.
The issue had attracted scrutiny from the European Commission, which opened an investigation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The legislation is designed to curb the market power of major technology companies and ensure greater competition in digital markets.
The Commission’s investigation puts Google under pressure to demonstrate that its search practices do not unfairly disadvantage publishers that work with commercial partners.
The stakes are significant. Companies found to have breached the DMA can face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global annual turnover, making regulatory compliance an expensive business when the search algorithm becomes the centre of attention.
Google’s European policy change therefore offers publishers some breathing room while the broader regulatory scrutiny continues. For now, the search giant is drawing a clearer line around where its spam penalties apply, with Europe getting its own set of rules.
