Google proposes EU Search changes to avoid fines

Google has proposed changes to how Search ranks news sites in the EU as it tries to settle a Digital Markets Act probe and avoid fresh penalties.

The investigation began in late 2025 after EU officials said Google’s anti-spam rules may have unfairly lowered some publisher in Search rankings.

Google’s latest proposal would loosen parts of its site reputation abuse policy.

Google said it is engaging with the European Commission, while the company already faces other DMA probes and has accumulated 9.5 billion euros (US$11.1 billion) in EU competition fines across four cases.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Google’s rule runs into publisher business models

The “site reputation abuse” policy, also called “parasite SEO” (search engine optimisation), targets third-party material placed on a trusted site to benefit from that site’s strong search position 1.
Google cites cases such as payday loan reviews on an education site or casino pages on a medical site [10/11].
Publishers say the rule hurts legitimate income sources, including sponsored posts, affiliate shopping guides, and other third-party commercial deals used to monetise their sites 1.
Google has enforced site reputation abuse through manual actions rather than algorithmic penalties. It has penalised publishers including Forbes and CNN, hitting affiliate, coupon, or recommendation sections [10/11].

The EU is testing how the DMA applies to Google Search rules and rankings

This inquiry is separate from the European Commission’s earlier Digital Markets Act (DMA) case on Google Search and self-preferencing, when a platform favors its own services over rivals’ 1.
Officials are examining whether Google’s use of its anti-spam rule on publishers fits the DMA duty to offer fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory access to publishers’ websites on Google Search 2.
A decision against Google could shape how these DMA rules are read. Dominant platforms may need to defend quality controls on both user experience and fair access grounds for business users 1.
That outcome could give regulators more say over how designated gatekeepers, the largest digital platforms covered by the DMA, apply ranking rules to business users and make future content policy changes 1.