Report from Reuters
In Brief – The European Union is reportedly preparing to impose a high triple-digit million euro antitrust fine on Google this summer for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by unfairly prioritizing its own “vertical” search services in general search results, disadvantaging vertical search rivals. The investigation was launched in 2024 as one of the initial DMA enforcement actions. While the European Commission says its primary objective is achieving compliance with the DMA rather than collecting fines, officials have signaled they are prepared to escalate enforcement even as negotiations over search changes continue. Google has strongly criticized the EU’s search mandates, arguing they have significantly weakened the quality of its search experience in Europe to satisfy a small group of vertical search competitors. EU regulators recently granted Google additional time to address vertical search concerns.
Context – The “fairness” of Google search results has been a morass for decades. Every algorithm change benefits some websites while others feel aggrieved. The DMA now fully regulates Google search. The company faces five DMA enforcement actions. Three of them involve search, including its treatment of vertical search competitors, how its anti-spam policies impact publisher websites, and a “specification proceeding” to direct how it will share search data with search competitors, including AI chatbot companies. The DMA negotiations with Google over how it should change search to mollify specialized “vertical search” aggregators for services like flights and hotels have taken over two years trying to find answers that will not also anger hotel chains and airlines who want high rankings too. Google argues that search is a complex black box intended to benefit users not particular types of businesses. The main takeaways at this point are that EU regulators appear increasingly comfortable getting into the mix on highly technical disputes about user experience and how search operates, and that imposing fines on Big Tech are the least controversial EU remedy domestically.