Google has altered its spam policy for users in the European Economic Area, a move designed to quiet mounting concerns from Brussels that the tech giant was unfairly penalising news outlets and other publishers. The revision, which takes effect on 30 August, means that manual actions aimed at demoting sites will no longer apply to visitors from the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Outside the EEA the original rules remain unchanged. The shift follows complaints that Google’s approach to “parasite SEO” – the practice of hosting third‑party pages to exploit a host site’s ranking power – was inadvertently downgrading legitimate press publications.
Background: Parasite SEO and Publisher Complaints
The controversy centres on Google’s site reputation abuse policy, which targets attempts to manipulate search rankings by publishing external content on a trusted domain. Publishers argued that when they hosted partner‑provided material – such as sponsored articles or syndicated feeds – their own pages were being demoted in search results, even though the content was editorially sound. The European Commission’s competition arm took note, launching an investigation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to determine whether Google’s conduct constituted an abuse of its dominant position.
Policy Change Details and Scope
From the end of August, Google will suspend any manual demotions that stem from its spam policy for users located within the EEA. The company stressed that the alteration is limited to this region; the same enforcement measures will continue to apply elsewhere in the world. Google’s statement emphasised that the update does not affect its broader efforts to combat low‑quality or deceptive content, but rather addresses the specific worry that news media were being caught in the net.
Regulatory Reaction and DMA Implications
EU Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier welcomed the adjustment, describing the previous policy as “unfairly penalising publishers and other business users of Google Search.” He noted that, thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third‑party content. The Commission pledged to monitor the new policy’s implementation to ensure ongoing compliance with the DMA, reminding that breaches can attract fines of up to 10 % of a company’s global annual turnover.
Why it Matters
The tweak signals how the DMA is already reshaping the behaviour of major digital platforms, forcing them to calibrate algorithms that have historically favoured their own services. For publishers, the change could restore visibility and traffic that had been siphoned away by automatic demotions, potentially bolstering advertising revenues in a sector already under pressure. For Google, the move reduces the risk of a costly antitrust penalty while demonstrating a willingness to adapt to regulatory demands in one of its most lucrative markets. As the EU continues to scrutinise Big Tech under the DMA, similar policy adjustments may become a recurring theme in the relationship between regulators and the world’s largest internet firms.
