Google wraps ‘blue links’ search test, lobbies for less maximalist application of EU’s DMA

Google has ended a test in which it was returning basic “blue link” search results for hotel-related searches in a handful of markets in the European Union, in response to compliance complaints related to the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). These blue links appeared instead of visually richer results, where its search engine will display thumbnail photos of hotels along with price info and also plotting their location on a map.

In a blog post Thursday, Google’s Oliver Bethell, director, legal, claimed the results of the test indicate that reviving plain blue link-style search results was bad news for hotels, sending their traffic down by more than 10%, and thereby making it harder for travellers to find accommodation businesses to make direct bookings.

Nor, Bethell suggested, did rowing back to more basic search results meaningfully increase traffic to comparison websites that aggregate hotel rooms — with Google’s blog post claiming “traffic to intermediary sites largely stayed flat.”

Since the DMA came into force across the EU in early March — and even earlier than that, when Google was previewing its response to the bloc’s flagship market contestability regime — comparison websites have argued it flouting the regulation’s ban on self preferencing by embedding rich features into Google search results that compete with their aggregation businesses by discouraging users from turning to vertical search services.

The stakes are high for Google as confirmed breaches of the DMA could lead to penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover (or even more for repeat offences). Plus, the European Commission already has an open probe of its DMA compliance which covers the self-preferencing issue. That investigation remains ongoing.

Google has pushed back against complaints that it’s not playing by the EU’s rules by framing DMA compliance as an inconvenience for users. Its suggestion is it’s being forced to degrade the quality of search results for local users in order to avoid preferencing its own services above rival comparison sites.

The blue links test was another manifestation of Google’s anti-DMA lobbying — one which allows it to claim it now has data to back up its contention that European search result quality is being forcibly wound back to the web 1.0 era thanks to regulatory overreach.

Whether Google’s test will sway public opinion one way or the other is unclear. Given the small scale of the test, and the fact Google was pulling all the levers involved, it really shouldn’t.

Nor should Google devising, running and framing its own test, and then pronouncing results that dovetail with its push for a minimalist interpretation of how the DMA applies to its business, surprise or impress the regulation’s enforcers, either.

But the wider issue of how to apply the DMA to such a dominant search tool in a way that doesn’t introduce some friction or negative knock-on impact for European consumers and businesses is harder to ignore. And it remains to be seen what the European Commission’s investigation will conclude.

Notably, it has taken the bloc longer to reach a preliminary conclusion on the Google self preferencing case than the two other DMA cases it opened simultaneously (one concerning Apple’s App Store; and another on Meta’s forced consent). In both those other cases, preliminary findings were reached over the summer — followed by movement from the tech giants on their respective compliance approaches.

Whereas on Google the EU has kept its powder dry.

The search giant’s continued push-back against DMA complaints — and its heavy framing of the regulation as harming, rather than helping, European consumers — suggests it’s still holding out for an opportunity to shape a less costly interpretation of the rules for its search business that avoids a scenario where Google search in the EU is forced to become a “blue links” dumb pipe.

“To comply with the DMA, we have already made significant changes that have already diverted traffic from hotels to intermediaries, effectively raising prices for consumers,” Bethell argues in the blog post, before going on to threaten to remove “helpful features” altogether — warning of a “lose-lose situation” for European users and European businesses.

“We look forward to discussing these findings with the European Commission and working to find a more balanced solution,” he adds.

The Commission has been contacted for a response to Google’s blog post.