Google warns of worst quality drop in 29 years as EU search revamp begins

Google rolled out changes to its European search results on Tuesday to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, after a €460 million fine in July for self-preferencing. The company says the new layout degrades the user experience and will shift traffic to intermediaries like Booking.com and Expedia. Users outside the EU are unaffected per Google.

Bottom line — €10.38bn in EU antitrust penalties over nearly two decades preceded this compliance move.

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• The changes strip real-time prices from carousels of hotels, airlines, and restaurants, and replace Google's own featured snippets with a list of links, per Reuters and The Next Web.
• One specialised search engine now sits at the top; two others follow with fewer details. Google's algorithm still determines the order, the company said.
• Google claims earlier DMA changes cut free direct booking traffic to European businesses by 30%, and internal tests show high user dissatisfaction with the new layout, The Next Web reports.
• The European Commission gave Google 60 days to comply or face periodic penalties of up to 5% of global turnover, per Reuters.
• A notice attached to existing DMA booking widgets in the EU states prices are personalised based on factors like device type, complicating the idea of fair comparison, Barry Schwartz reported for Search Engine Roundtable.
• Google's official, Nick Fox, said the changes 'boost online intermediaries at the expense of local businesses.' The Commission has not yet commented on the rollout.
• The EU fines have become a diplomatic matter: US President Donald Trump threatened an investigation into what he called the bloc's 'robbing' of American companies, per Reuters.
• The Next Web notes that the DMA obliges gatekeepers to write their own compliance, meaning Google controls the first draft — and is now warning readers they will dislike it.

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