Google announced a restructuring of its search engine results in the European Union. The changes should help avoid some of the 890 million euros (about $1 billion) in fines that the European Commission issued over the summer.
A separate sanction of 460 million euros (about $534 million) was related to allegations that Google used its dominant position in search to promote its own services.
The dispute centers on a requirement in the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that major tech platforms must not rank their own services above third-party ones. It is this norm that has become the main field of conflict between Brussels and American IT giants.
Google described the first set of changes for DMA back in March 2024. Within a few weeks, the European Commission began an investigation against Google, Apple and Meta, pointing out, in particular, the placement of the Google Flights block above its competitors in travel queries. A year later, the regulator issued the first fines for self-promotion, and in October 2025, reports appeared that Google had proposed adjusting the presentation of results.
According to Reutersthe updated SERP will show one specialized search service at the top of the page, and below it two more with less detail. Below this will be a carousel of hotels, airlines and restaurants, with key elements such as real-time prices removed.
Specialized services, also known as vertical search engines, include sites like Expedia and Hotels.com. This means that European users will be more likely to see aggregators and price comparison sites higher than the pages of hotels, restaurants and airlines themselves.
At the same time, Reuters notes that the order in these blocks will still be determined by the Google algorithm, so control over the actual distribution of traffic remains with the corporation. The European Commission gave 60 days to bring the service into compliance with the rules, but Google did not give the exact date for the launch of the new search results for Europeans.
The corporation’s management presents the execution of DMA as a forced reduction in search quality. Google told Reuters that the changes would be the largest drop in service quality in the history of the search engine.
Nick Fox, Senior Vice President of Knowledge and Information at Google:
These changes worsen the user experience for Europeans – they strengthen online intermediaries at the expense of local businesses and remove useful features that people rely on every day.
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The company also refers to statistics on past edits for DMA compliance. She estimates that they led to a 30% drop in free direct booking traffic from European companies, and the new updates, Google expects, will lead to another decline.
