Google Revises Spam Policy in EU Following Antitrust Pressure from Regulators
Overview of Google's Policy Changes and EU Regulatory Response
Background of the Policy Change
Aug 28 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google on Friday said it had changed its spam policy in Europe to address EU concerns that could have resulted in an antitrust fine.
The U.S. tech giant found itself in EU regulators' crosshairs after publishers complained about its site reputation abuse policy.
Understanding Site Reputation Abuse and Parasite SEO
It targets the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site's ranking signals, commonly referred to as parasite SEO.
EU Concerns and Google's Response
Impact on News Media and Publishers
The EU said that its monitoring showed that Google's spam policy demoted news media and other publishers' websites and content in Google search results, when those websites include content from commercial partners.
Policy Adjustments in the European Economic Area
Google said that from August 30 any manual actions taken to demote sites would not apply to users in the 27 EU nations, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein (the European Economic Area).
The policy would not change outside the European Economic Area, it added.
Reactions from the European Commission
Statements from EU Officials
"We welcome the repeal of this policy, which unfairly penalised publishers and other business users of Google Search," EU Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.
Investigation Under the Digital Markets Act
Concerns about the policy had prompted the European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, to open an investigation under the Digital Markets Act, which aims to rein in the power of Big Tech.
Implications of the Digital Markets Act (DMA)
"Thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content," Regnier said.
"The Commission will now monitor the application of the new policy to ensure it is compliant with the DMA."
DMA breaches can cost companies fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
