Google has changed how it applies its site-reputation-abuse policy to users in the European Economic Area as European Union regulators examine whether the rule unfairly disadvantages publishers. The change covers the European Union’s 27 members as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
The policy addresses arrangements in which third-party material is placed on an established website to benefit from the host domain’s search authority, a practice commonly described as parasite SEO. Publishers argued that Google’s enforcement could also demote legitimate media websites carrying material supplied by commercial partners.
Google said manual actions used to demote sites under the policy would no longer apply to users in the covered European markets from August 30. The company said enforcement outside the European Economic Area would remain unchanged, creating a geographically distinct treatment of the same category of search content.
The European Commission opened proceedings under the Digital Markets Act after monitoring Google’s treatment of publishers and partner content. The law regulates designated technology gatekeepers and allows penalties of up to 10 per cent of worldwide annual turnover when the Commission establishes a breach.
The dispute matters beyond search rankings because it tests how platforms may fight manipulation without suppressing lawful publishing models. Regulators must assess whether Google’s revised approach addresses their competition concerns, while publishers and search specialists will watch how visibility changes across European and non-European results.
