Report from the Wall Street Journal
In Brief – Google has agreed to change its search ranking policies in Europe regarding websites that contain third-party content. The change involves Google’s “Site Reputation Abuse” policy, an anti-spam initiative the company described as targeting third party producers of content many users consider spam from boosting their ranking in Google Search by purchasing placement on the website of an established publisher trusted by Google’s algorithms. Under the policy, Google has hidden portions of an established publisher’s website after determining they violated its spam rules. European media companies complained to regulators that Google was demoting their sites to penalize their commercial agreements, leading to the Commission opening a Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigation. In response, Google has announced that it will no longer take Site Reputation Policy enforcement actions within the European Economic Area (EEA), although it may begin analyzing and independently ranking portions of sites when they involve clear editorial or content differences from other portions. Google will continue enforcing the anti-spam policy outside the EEA.
Context – The “fairness” of Google search results has been an unending morass for decades. Every algorithm change benefits some websites while others feel aggrieved. Conflicts over Google search, in particular the dispute between Google and “vertical search” competitors that resulted in the Google Shopping antitrust case that lasted nearly 15 years, was a primary driver that led to the DMA that regulates the largest platforms rather than relying on antitrust enforcement. The dispute over Google’s treatment of vertical search was also the topic of one of the first DMA cases, which stretched over two years and finally resulted in Google receiving a €460 million fine for favoring its own vertical shopping, hotel, transport and sports services in general search results. What this obscure search engine anti-spam dispute really illustrates is that the EU’s digital regulators are comfortable getting into the mix on highly technical disputes about user experience and how search operates.