Alphabet’s Google has changed the way it enforces a controversial search spam policy in Europe after regulators raised concerns that the rules were unfairly penalising news organisations and other publishers.
The policy change, announced on Friday, follows complaints from publishers about Google’s site reputation abuse rules, which were designed to tackle a practice commonly known as “parasite SEO”. The practice involves placing third-party content on an established website in an attempt to exploit the site’s existing ranking strength and improve the visibility of that content in Google Search.
But European Union regulators found that the policy could have unintended consequences for legitimate publishers.
According to the European Commission, its monitoring showed that Google’s enforcement measures were demoting news media and other publishers in search results when their websites carried content produced or supplied by commercial partners.
Google said that, beginning August 30, manual actions taken under the policy to demote websites would no longer apply to users in the European Union’s 27 member states, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, which together with the EU make up the European Economic Area.
The company said the policy would remain unchanged outside the European Economic Area.
The move comes after the European Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, opened an investigation into Google's practices under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc's sweeping legislation aimed at curbing the market power of major technology companies.
EU officials welcomed Google's decision.
"We welcome the repeal of this policy, which unfairly penalised publishers and other business users of Google Search," EU Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.
"Thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content," Regnier added.
He said the European Commission would continue to scrutinise Google's implementation of the revised policy.
"The Commission will now monitor the application of the new policy to ensure it is compliant with the DMA."
The dispute highlights the increasingly complicated relationship between Google and publishers over how content is ranked and displayed online.
Google has long argued that its search policies are necessary to protect users from low-quality content and attempts to manipulate search rankings. Its site reputation abuse policy was introduced to prevent websites from benefiting from third-party material designed primarily to exploit their established authority in search.
The controversy arose because some publishers also host content from commercial partners, advertisers and other third parties for legitimate business reasons. Regulators feared that Google's enforcement mechanisms could punish those publishers even when the arrangement did not amount to an attempt to manipulate search results.
The European Commission's intervention reflects a broader effort to ensure that dominant technology companies do not use their control over essential digital platforms in ways that disadvantage businesses operating within the European market.
Under the Digital Markets Act, companies found in breach of the rules can face substantial financial penalties. Fines can reach as much as 10% of a company's global annual turnover, creating a significant incentive for the world's largest technology firms to comply with the bloc's requirements.
Google's decision therefore represents both a policy adjustment and a response to growing regulatory pressure in one of its most important markets.
For publishers, the immediate change means that websites in the European Economic Area will no longer face Google's site reputation abuse demotions under the existing enforcement regime. For regulators, however, the issue is not necessarily closed.
The European Commission has made clear that it will continue monitoring Google's search practices to determine whether the revised approach complies with the DMA.
The episode underscores the growing influence of European regulators over the policies of global technology companies—and the increasing scrutiny surrounding the algorithms that determine what millions of people see when they search the internet.