Story perspectives

Google Ends Manual EU Demotions for Third-Party SEO

8/28/2026

Summary

Story summary

Google will stop manually demoting sites in the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein from Aug 30 2026.
EU regulators said the previous rule harmed news publishers under the Digital Markets Act.
The rule targeted parasite SEO by lowering rankings of sites that posted third-party content.
Publishers argued the rule also penalised legitimate sites hosting third-party material.
Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the new rule complies with the DMA and will be monitored.

History

Historical Context

In 2010 the European Commission opened antitrust probes into Google’s search and Android practices. The investigations culminated on 27 June 2017 when Commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined Google €2.42 billion for illegally favoring its Shopping service, the EU’s largest penalty then. The ruling paved the way for further EU measures on platform fairness across the digital market.

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Story summary

Google will stop manually demoting sites in the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein from Aug 30 2026.
EU regulators said the previous rule harmed news publishers under the Digital Markets Act.
The rule targeted parasite SEO by lowering rankings of sites that posted third-party content.
Publishers argued the rule also penalised legitimate sites hosting third-party material.
Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the new rule complies with the DMA and will be monitored.

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