Google Alters Spam Policy in Europe to Address EU Antitrust Threat
Google's Response to EU Antitrust Concerns
Background: EU Scrutiny and Publisher Complaints
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.
Impact of Google's Spam Policy in Europe
Demotion of News Media and Publisher Websites
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 Changes Effective August 30
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.
Regulatory and Legal Implications
European Commission Investigation
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.
Potential Penalties for DMA Breaches
DMA breaches can cost companies fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
