Google Modifies Search Spam Policy in Europe to Address Antitrust Scrutiny

Alphabet’s Google announced on Friday that it has modified its spam policy in Europe to address regulatory concerns raised by the European Commission, a move that helps the company avoid potential antitrust fines.

The regulatory scrutiny began after publishers complained to EU authorities about Google's site reputation abuse policy. The policy was designed to target a practice known as parasite SEO, where third-party pages are published on a host site to manipulate search rankings by leveraging the host's existing ranking signals.

According to the European Commission, monitoring revealed that Google’s spam policy resulted in the demotion of news media and other publishers' websites and content in search results whenever those websites hosted content from commercial partners.

In response to the regulatory pressure, Google stated that starting August 30, any manual actions taken to demote sites under this policy will no longer apply to users across the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, which comprise the European Economic Area. The company noted, however, that the policy remains unchanged outside of this region.

The European Commission, acting as the EU competition enforcer, had initiated an investigation into the matter under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), legislation specifically designed to curb the market power of large technology companies. Under the DMA, violations can result in penalties amounting to up to 10% of a company's global annual turnover.

EU Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier welcomed the update. "We welcome the repeal of this policy, which unfairly penalised publishers and other business users of Google Search," Regnier said. He added that thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content.

The European Commission stated that it will actively monitor the implementation of Google's new policy to ensure full compliance with the Digital Markets Act.

"This development highlights the growing regulatory oversight large technology platforms face globally, particularly regarding how platform algorithms impact digital publishers and third-party monetization. For businesses and publishers operating digital models, regulatory frameworks like the European Union's Digital Markets Act demonstrate that policy compliance is now a critical operational risk factor. Companies must increasingly account for local regulatory environments when designing search and content policies to avoid substantial financial penalties and maintain market access." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes