Google has begun changing Search results across the European Economic Area to meet a July Digital Markets Act decision, and says the new layout is the biggest drop in quality in the engine’s 29-year history.
The Commission’s own decision records that Google’s previous display was better for users in several of the disputed boxes. It then says that does not matter.
On July 23 the Commission found Alphabet in breach of the DMA for ranking its own shopping, flights, trains, lodging, Maps, translation, sports and games units more favourably than similar third-party services.
It fined the company €460 million and gave it 60 days to stop, with periodic penalty payments of up to 5 per cent of worldwide turnover if it missed the deadline.
A separate €430 million Play Store fine was issued the same day.
A Commission spokesperson told Brussels Signal they “are indeed aware of foreseen changes to the Google Search engine results page being rolled out as part of its compliance with Article 6(5) DMA, following the Commission’s decision of July 23, 2026 and a constructive dialogue between Google and the Commission”.
“Our decision ensures that consumers in Europe should have the full choice on whether they want to rely on intermediaries for their hotel, flight or shopping searches or transact directly with merchants. We expect Google to ensure that its own vertical search services will not be presented more prominently in Google Search irrespective of their quality.”
The search changes went live on September 8. Users outside the EU are not affected.
The new page puts one specialised search engine at the top, two more below with less detail, and a carousel of hotels, airlines and restaurants underneath, with features such as live prices stripped out.
Google’s algorithm still sets the order.
Nick Fox, senior vice-president for knowledge and information, said the 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.”
The company told Reuters it had tested the design with millions of European users and found high dissatisfaction, including people having to retype queries.
It also said earlier DMA tweaks cut free direct-booking traffic to European businesses by 30 per cent. Those figures come from Google.
The decision acknowledged the use of the old units, but went ahead anyway.
On product searches, recital 188 says the Commission “does not contest that the unit helps users find products corresponding to their query.” It still treats the box as a distinct comparison service because it goes beyond sending people to websites.
On translation, in recitals 535 and 542, Alphabet argued the unit gave a direct answer to the query; the Commission accepted that it provided relevant answers, then held that the purpose still went beyond an ordinary search engine.
The sports pane is handled in the same way. Alphabet said it answered the query with scores and basic figures and sent people on to websites. The Commission accepted that the box was useful.
It still classed it as a separate service because the data is licensed rather than crawled from the open web, and therefore it cannot sit above rival sports sites (recitals 565–573).
Recital 189 again clearly set out the Commission’s position. “It is not decisive for the application of Article 6(5) … whether Alphabet’s own service is beneficial to one user group or another. The legislator deliberately opted against allowing for this sort of efficiency defence.”
The same wording appears again at recital 291 on flights.
Still, the DMA was written that way on purpose.
Unlike ordinary competition law, it does not let a firm argue that the practice helps users or is justified on efficiency grounds, and it does not require the Commission to run a case-by-case inquiry into complex facts.
Equal ranking opportunity is the essence of Brussels’ demands. Whether the page is worse for users is, on that reading, beside the point.
Comparison sites such as Booking and Expedia gain the prominent slots. Local hotels and restaurants that used to appear with a link, phone number and address sit further down.
It is important to note that Google is not a disinterested witness.
Ranking its own shopping, flights, hotels and sports boxes first sends traffic and data through Alphabet’s products.
The company has every reason to keep those units prominent and every reason to describe the DMA layout as a collapse in quality.
The tests it cites all come from Google itself.
Dirk Auer, director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, told Brussels Signal that “of course Google has a dog in the race”, but that “doesn’t make its claim any less true.
“Europeans searching for maps, hotels or flights are now getting a significantly worse product, and everyone involved knows it.”
“The more important point is that this outcome is the direct and intended result of how the Commission has chosen to interpret the DMA.
“The DMA stops a gatekeeper from ranking its own services above “similar” third-party services in search results. The legislature meant that as a narrow, clearly defined rule. The Commission’s July decision stretched that narrow rule to cover tabs, a “directions” button on a map, a translation box and even the Solitaire doodle, and closed with an order covering “any other button” pointing to a Google service.
“When Google showed that removing map links had degraded the service for users, the Commission replied that quality was “not relevant”. If quality is irrelevant and the rule catches everything on the Google Search page, then degradation is no longer an unintended side effect of enforcement.
“The point is that the DMA was supposed to protect European consumers and small businesses. Instead it is making information harder to find and pulling traffic from hotel and airline websites towards a handful of aggregators. It harms those very people it intended to protect.”
In a reaction to Brussels Signal, Kay Jebelli Vice President of Progress Chamber likewise said, “Something is wrong with this process. Good digital policy can’t mean making things worse for European users.”
On X he noted that “European regulators have decided that they want to use the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to make Google Search worse for all European users, so they can prop up European rivals and protect them from competition from Google. ”
Malte Landwehr, an SEO specialist documenting the rollout, posted screenshots of the new supplier units, product sliders and hotel maps that no longer open Google Maps when clicked.
At his oversight post he also reminded people in the EU already can’t click on Google Maps in a search anymore because of the DMA, a similar move where Google was banned from promoting it’s own services to the detriment of users.
Google just announced they are releasing the largest reduction in search result quality. But only for Europeans.
For my SEO friends outside of Europe, this is what Supplier Units, Structured Data Carousels, and the Places Sites feature look like. 👇 pic.twitter.com/NeZjmvYPrn— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 9, 2026
