Google to Test Rival Search Engine Visibility in EU Under DMA Pressure

Google will begin testing changes to its search results that display top-ranked rival vertical search engines by default in Europe, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, as the company seeks to avoid further penalties under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

The move represents Google’s most concrete adjustment since regulators charged the company with breaching DMA rules in March 2025. The world’s most popular internet search engine has come up with various proposals to mollify rivals and EU regulators since it was charged last March with breaching the Digital Markets Act, but has yet to implement any of those proposals after rivals complained that the measures were insufficient.

The Vertical Search Battle

The issue pits Google against vertical search services (VSS) linked to sectors such as hotels, airlines and restaurants or to companies in those sectors. According to TechSpot, regulators in Brussels allege that Google’s search engine gives undue prominence to its own travel and hospitality services, limiting user exposure to competing vertical search platforms specializing in bookings and price comparisons.

The upcoming trial will, by default, display top-ranked vertical search engines for relevant queries, according to Reuters. The tests will begin in Europe, initially focusing on hotel or lodging-related searches. Additional categories such as flights and other services are expected to be added afterward.

High-Stakes Compliance Theater

The financial consequences of non-compliance are substantial. Violations of the law can trigger fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s global annual revenue. For Google, which generated $350 billion in revenue in 2024, that ceiling represents a potential $35 billion penalty—nearly triple the €9.71 billion ($11.5 billion) in fines the company has already accumulated since 2017 across separate EU Antitrust cases involving shopping services, Android, and advertising practices.

Google’s previous compliance attempts have fallen flat. In June 2024, the company submitted a proposal outlining a system where vertical search services would appear in a dedicated box at the top of search results using objective criteria. The European Commission hosted a workshop in July bringing together Google and competitors, but these proposals failed to assuage concerns from competitors, who argued that Google’s adjustments still fell short of creating a level playing field.

The Traffic Redistribution Question

The regulatory pressure exists within a broader competitive landscape where Google’s dominance, while still overwhelming, shows subtle erosion. In Europe, Google holds 88.95% market share, down from over 90% in previous years. Microsoft Bing holds 8.78% market share in the US, while privacy-focused alternatives like DuckDuckGo maintain 2.37% market share and continue steady growth.

For vertical search providers—specialized platforms focused on hotel bookings, flight comparisons, restaurant reservations, and similar services—default visibility in Google results could fundamentally alter traffic economics. According to Search Engine Journal, travel, hospitality, and local business verticals would feel the effects first. Rival services could pull clicks from Google’s integrated results toward other booking platforms and aggregators.

Geopolitical Friction Intensifies

The enforcement campaign has sharpened transatlantic tensions. The EU crackdown on Big Tech for squeezing out rivals has sharpened tensions with the United States, prompting tariff threats and a visa ban against a former European Commission official who spearheaded landmark digital services legislation.

Six of the seven companies designated as gatekeepers under the DMA—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft—are American or Chinese, leading to accusations that Brussels designed the Regulation to target non-European firms. European Commission officials have consistently rejected this characterization, stating according to Wikipedia that it is “not designed to target companies based on nationality”.

Google has positioned itself as defending user experience against regulatory overreach. In a September 2024 blog post, the company claimed the law was causing “significant and unintended harm” to European users and businesses, claiming changes to its search results have cut free traffic to European tourism businesses by up to 30%.

What to Watch

The Commission’s response to Google’s latest testing will determine whether the company has finally calibrated its compliance approach correctly or faces preliminary findings of continued violations. The EU opened separate specification proceedings in January 2026 requiring Google to share anonymized search ranking, query, click, and view data with rival search engines, expanding pressure beyond display mechanics to underlying competitive intelligence.

Whether competitors will accept the new display format as sufficient remains unclear. Previous rounds saw vertical search providers and industry associations argue that Google’s modifications preserved core advantages while creating the appearance of compliance. The company’s accumulated €9.71 billion in fines demonstrates Brussels’ willingness to impose financial consequences, but the DMA’s structural remedy provisions—allowing the Commission to require business divestiture or operational separation for systematic non-compliance—represent an existential threat that fines alone never posed.

For businesses dependent on search traffic, the divergence between European and global Google results creates strategic complications. The zero-click search trend—where 26.1% of searches ended without a click in March 2026 in EU markets—compounds the challenge, as even prominent placement may not translate to traffic if AI-generated summaries and direct answers satisfy user intent within Google’s interface.