TECHNOLOGY

European Union regulators have launched a new investigation into Google over concerns that its efforts to combat online spam are unfairly pushing news and other media content down its search rankings.

The European Commission said it is examining whether Google’s “site reputation abuse” policy breaches the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) by demoting lawful publisher content that carries paid or third-party material. The probe follows complaints from media groups which say the policy has reduced their visibility in search results.

Teresa Ribera, the Commission executive vice-president responsible for digital policy and competition, said Brussels was concerned that publishers were not being treated in a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” way on Google Search. The investigation will assess whether the company’s rules comply with the DMA’s obligations on “gatekeeper” platforms to give business users equal access to their services and audiences.

At the centre of the case is Google’s enforcement of its site reputation abuse policy, introduced in 2024, which targets what the company describes as “parasite SEO” – arrangements where third parties pay to place promotional or affiliate content on high-reputation websites in order to climb search rankings. Google has begun downgrading or removing such pages from results, a move it says is necessary to protect users from deceptive and low-quality material.

Pandu Nayak, Google Search’s chief scientist, said in a blog post that the Commission’s move was “entirely misguided” and that the policy is intended to stop “sketchy tactics” that would otherwise allow spam operators to outrank sites investing in their own content. Google says its anti-spam rules apply across sectors rather than being aimed specifically at news publishers.

EU officials take a different view. They say they have received indications that the policy is catching legitimate commercial arrangements such as sponsored articles and branded content. The Commission has signalled that it will scrutinise whether Google’s implementation goes beyond what is necessary to tackle scams, and whether media outlets have been given sufficient clarity and redress when their traffic has fallen.

The case is one of the first major DMA enforcement actions directly affecting the relationship between large online platforms and the news industry, which has long argued that digital intermediaries capture a significant share of the value of their content. It also comes two months after the Commission imposed a €2.95bn fine on Google over alleged abuses in its advertising technology business, a decision the company is appealing.

That earlier sanction drew a response from US president Donald Trump, who described the penalty as unfair to American firms and threatened retaliatory trade measures. The new probe risks adding further strain to transatlantic discussions over technology regulation, although EU officials say enforcement decisions are based on EU competition and internal market law rather than nationality.

Under the DMA, companies designated as gatekeepers – including Google’s parent company Alphabet – face fines of up to 10 per cent of their worldwide annual turnover for serious infringements, rising to 20 per cent for repeated violations. In extreme cases the Commission can order structural remedies, including the divestment of parts of a business, if behavioural commitments are deemed insufficient.

The investigation must be concluded within 12 months. During that period, the Commission is expected to gather data from publishers and advertisers on the impact of the site reputation abuse policy, and to analyse technical information from Google on how the changes are implemented in its ranking systems. The company will have the opportunity to submit detailed legal and economic arguments in its defence.

For Europe’s media sector, the outcome will be watched closely as policymakers seek to balance several objectives: maintaining the integrity of search results, enforcing new rules on large digital platforms, and ensuring that publishers can still fund original reporting. For Google, the case adds to a series of European regulatory challenges at a time when it is also adapting its core search product to new obligations under the DMA and the Digital Services Act.

The investigation underlines that the DMA has moved from the legislative stage into active enforcement and that the question of how large online platforms treat news providers is central to the debate over the governance of the digital economy in Europe.