From Search To Flights: Google Tweaks Everything For EU's Digital Markets Act

To comply with the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google GOOGL has unveiled the extensive work it has undertaken to meet the stringent regulations set to take effect on Thursday.

What Happened: Google has been working to comply with the DMA, a set of regulations designed to increase competition by imposing specific obligations on major tech companies. The DMA identifies six tech firms, including Google, as “gatekeepers”, requiring them to make changes that reduce barriers to competition, reported The Register on Wednesday.

Google’s Director of Competition, Oliver Bethell, emphasized that the company has made significant changes as a result of the DMA, including potential adjustments to its business practices and interfaces.

“The changes that we have made are the result of intensive work over many months from engineers, researchers, product managers and product designers from across the company,” he said.

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Some of the changes Google has announced include a new search page layout for European users, including dedicated aggregator units with links to aggregator sites from across the web. The search engine giant will also remove Google Flights data from search results pages for flight-related queries in Europe.

Google will also provide Android users in the European Economic Area with new browser and search choice screens during setup and will offer a separate search choice screen to those using Chrome on non-Android platforms in the region.

Why It Matters: The development comes after Google along with Microsoft decided in November not to contest the new EU regulation that mandates them to simplify the process for users to switch between rival services, including social media platforms and internet browsers.

Google’s efforts to comply with the DMA also come after a series of regulatory challenges in the EU. In January, the tech giant faced a potential $2.6 billion fine for unfairly favoring its shopping services, a move seen as exploiting its dominance in the general search services market. Similarly, in February, Google was hit with a $2.3 billion lawsuit from European media groups over its digital advertising practices.

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