Google modifies its spam policy in Europe under pressure from EU antitrust laws

Google will modify its spam policy in Europe starting August 30 to prevent certain measures applied to websites from leading to new sanctions by regulators from the European Union. The decision comes after the European Commission expressed concern about the impact Google’s policy was having on media and other digital publishers.

The American company, part of Alphabet, was under scrutiny from European authorities due to its policy known as ''site reputation abuse'', designed to combat a practice known as ''parasite SEO''. This strategy involves publishing third-party pages or content within a website to leverage the authority and ranking signals of the host domain to artificially improve the visibility of that content in search results.

Google considers this practice a form of manipulation of its ranking systems and, until now, could apply manual actions against sites it identified as responsible for this behavior. Among the consequences was a reduction in the ranking of certain pages or content within Google Search results.

However, the European Commission determined that the application of this policy could indirectly harm media and other legitimate publishers. According to the European body, its monitoring of the policy showed that Google was lowering the visibility of websites and content belonging to media and other publishers when they hosted material provided by commercial partners.

Brussels' concern arose after several publishers filed complaints about how Google was applying the rules against site reputation abuse. The conflict ultimately led the European Commission to initiate an investigation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European legislation designed to limit the power of large tech companies and promote greater competition in digital markets.

In response, Google announced that it will modify the territorial scope of the measures. Starting August 30, any manual action used to lower the ranking of a website due to this policy will not apply to users located in the 27 member countries of the European Union, as well as in Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, all of which are part of the European Economic Area.

The company clarified that the modification will be limited to the European Economic Area. Outside of that region, the policy against ''site reputation abuse'' will continue to be applied unchanged.

However, the European Commission does not consider the matter closed. The body announced that it will continue to monitor how Google implements the new policy to ensure that its practices comply with the obligations established by the Digital Markets Act.

The case represents another episode of the growing regulatory pressure in Europe on large American tech companies. Brussels has used the DMA to establish specific obligations aimed at companies considered ''gatekeepers'', that is, companies with a particularly relevant position as intermediaries between consumers and other digital businesses.

Failure to comply with the provisions of the DMA can have significant financial consequences. The legislation allows the European Commission to impose fines of up to 10% of a company's global annual revenue that violates its provisions. In certain cases of recidivism, European authorities also have additional tools to increase pressure on companies.

For Google, the announced change reduces the risk that the dispute over its spam policy will lead to an antitrust sanction under the European framework. At the same time, the modification reflects the growing tensions between the rules used by large platforms to combat the manipulation of their systems and the demands of European regulators to protect media, publishers, and other businesses that depend on their visibility online.

The European Commission welcomed the announcement. Thomas Regnier, spokesperson for the body, stated that Brussels welcomed the removal of the policy in question, arguing that it had unfairly penalized publishers and other business users of Google’s search engine.

Regnier maintained that the European intervention had led to a significant change in the way Google manages third-party content. According to the spokesperson, thanks to the DMA, Google Search will stop lowering the ranking of press publications simply for hosting content from third parties.