Google has announced changes to how its Search results are displayed across the European Union in an attempt to comply with the bloc's Digital Markets Act and avoid a share of the €890 million (roughly $1 billion) in fines imposed by the European Commission earlier this summer. The Commission had fined Google €460 million (around $534 million) for allegedly abusing its market dominance by favouring its own services over competitors' in search results, part of a long-running dispute over DMA rules requiring large tech firms not to rank their own offerings more favourably than third-party ones.

Under the revised layout, one specialised search engine, such as Expedia or Hotels.com, will appear prominently at the top of results, followed by two others with less detail, while a carousel of hotels, airlines and restaurants will sit lower down with features like real-time pricing removed; Google's own algorithm will still determine the rankings. The Commission gave Google 60 days to comply, though no firm rollout date has been set, and Google executive Nick Fox warned the changes represent the biggest quality reduction in the search engine's history, claiming previous DMA-related adjustments already cut free, direct booking traffic to European businesses by 30 percent, with further declines expected.