New competition rules come with trade-offs

Some countries are actively debating whether to adopt new rules that single out a small number of key technology services. These prescriptive laws aim to foster competitive digital markets, but may involve trade-offs that raise prices and limit choice for consumers and businesses. We wanted to share some of the concerns we received following the changes we made to comply with the recently enacted European Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Supporting businesses and consumers

Under the DMA, we had to remove the useful Google search functionality for flights, hotels, and local businesses. This means that when you search for flights in Europe, you won’t be able to see any information about airlines, flight times, or prices. While this benefits a small number of online travel aggregators, it hurts a wide range of airlines, hotel operators, and small businesses who find it difficult to contact customers directly.

We introduced this type of Google search functionality to help consumers and make it easier for people to access accurate information. Searching for flights on Google in Europe is even more difficult. And you’re at greater risk of landing on a travel website advertising a low fare with a message like “This fare is no longer available” right before you make your purchase.

Early response reporting for DMA compliance

Here are some other things we’ve seen in countries where DMA changes have been introduced:

• We’ve seen an increase in traffic to a small number of successful intermediary services and a significant decline in engagement with a wide range of businesses, including airlines, hotels, local merchants, and restaurants.
• Hotels are concerned that they have seen a 30% drop in direct booking clicks since compliance changes were implemented. While traffic from Google used to be free, these companies now have to connect with customers through a small number of intermediaries who typically charge hefty fees. European airlines and local businesses have expressed similar concerns.
• Consumers are expressing negative opinions about changes to how Google Maps appears in search. Many users in Europe have raised concerns on message boards and help forums about the removal of the handy Google Maps tab from search results pages.

Balance interests and focus on consumers

We’re always focused on improving Google Search to help people find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily. We built Google Images to display photos, not just links to them. We launched Google Maps to help you find local businesses, not just websites with addresses. And we’ve developed a way to save time and money by making it easy for people to connect directly with airlines, hotels, and merchants. These features also help many independent businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses, to compete with larger, more successful websites.

Rules that roll back some of these gains represent a fundamental shift in competition policy. We encourage other countries considering such rules to consider the potential negative impacts, including the negative impact on small and medium-sized businesses that do not have a voice in the regulatory process.

We remain transparent about our DMA compliance obligations and the impact of overly strict product obligations. In our view, the best approach is to continue to allow consumers to choose the services they want to use, rather than requiring search to be redesigned to benefit a few companies. .