Yelp says its tests show the design tweaks Google made to its search results to comply with the EU's DMA are unfair and one made users less likely to click away
Google says its new designs comply with the Digital Markets Act, which bars platforms from favoring their own tools. Bluesky: @bartwilleman.bsky.social See also Mediagazer Bluesky: Bart Willeman / @bartwilleman.bsky.social : Don't be evil 🙄 [embedded post] See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Yelp’s challenge extends a long-running dispute over whether Google’s search presentation advantages its own services. Its earlier campaign for antitrust action over Google’s search display makes the DMA redesigns a test of whether interface changes alter that underlying dynamic rather than resolve it.
The immediate issue is not simply whether Google changed Search, but whether the resulting layouts produce meaningful opportunities for users to leave Google. Yelp’s testing puts user behavior at the center of the compliance debate.
First-order effects
- Google’s EU-facing Search designs face a fresh fairness challenge from Yelp, despite Google’s position that the designs comply with the DMA.
- Yelp says one tested variant reduced users’ likelihood of clicking to external destinations, directly challenging the premise that the redesign creates neutral treatment for rival services.
Second-order effects
- The dispute raises the bar for Google’s compliance case: design choices may be judged not only by the presence of rival links but by whether users actually engage with them.
- Other vertical-search and local-information providers have a clearer incentive to test and document how DMA interfaces affect referral traffic, potentially adding evidence to regulatory scrutiny.
Third-order effects
- DMA enforcement is moving toward interface-level questions about search self-preferencing: ranking and page design can shape competition even when rivals are technically included.
- If behavioral evidence becomes central, gatekeeper compliance may require recurring scrutiny of product outcomes rather than one-time, static changes to page layouts.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift from regulating platform access in principle to assessing whether interface design delivers contestable user pathways in practice.