Alphabet’s Google has quietly adjusted its European spam policy to dodge what could have become a costly antitrust penalty from Brussels. The change arrives after EU regulators flagged concerns that the company’s search rules unfairly punished news outlets and other publishers who host partner content.
The controversy centers on what Google terms “site reputation abuse,” a practice critics call parasite SEO. Third-party pages piggyback on established domains to exploit their ranking authority in search results. Publishers complained that Google’s enforcement harmed legitimate media operations rather than just manipulative actors.
EU monitoring found that Google’s policy demoted websites belonging to news organizations and publishers when those properties included content from commercial collaborators. That triggered scrutiny under the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s sweeping legislation designed to curb the dominance of major technology platforms.
Starting August 30, manual actions that Google takes to push down sites will no longer affect users across the 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. The company confirmed the policy shift applies only within the European Economic Area. Search results elsewhere remain unchanged.
The European Commission, which serves as the EU’s competition watchdog, had opened an investigation into the matter. Violations of the DMA carry severe financial consequences. Companies can face fines reaching 10% of their annual global revenue.
For Google, that figure would translate into billions of dollars. Moving to preempt the probe makes strategic sense. Meanwhile, publishers in Europe gain breathing room from automated demotions that many argued lacked transparency and hit established journalism brands alongside low-quality aggregators.
The rollback signals how regulatory pressure can force quick concessions from even the largest tech firms. Whether other regions demand similar treatment remains an open question.
