Google outlines updates to comply with the EU's DMA: search changes to prioritize large intermediaries and aggregators, new tools for app developers, and more

Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday outlined changes to search results and new tools for apps developers to promote their products …

Reuters 2024-03-05 Foo Yun Chee

Context & Ripple Effects

Google had already signaled that comparison services would receive dedicated visibility through a new links unit for comparison websites. This update broadens the compliance effort from rankings and result presentation to the tools available to app developers.

The significance is that DMA compliance is becoming a product-design issue across Google's consumer-facing surfaces, rather than a single change to search presentation.

First-order effects

Large intermediaries and aggregators gain preferential placement in the revised search experience, changing the routes through which users reach specialized services.
App developers receive new promotional tools, while Google must operate search and app-distribution features under the DMA's revised requirements.

Second-order effects

Comparison and vertical-search providers have a stronger incentive to compete for visibility through Google's results, while merchants and other businesses may need to reassess which intermediaries deliver traffic.
Google's subsequent product choices will be tested against whether they provide meaningful access to rivals; later reporting that regulators considered a DMA charge over Google’s search changes underscores that implementation, not merely announcements, is central.

Third-order effects

If enforcement continues to focus on result design and distribution tools, gatekeeper regulation will increasingly shape interface defaults, ranking treatments, and promotional capabilities alongside traditional conduct rules.
The durable uncertainty is whether mandated prominence for intermediaries produces more contestable distribution or simply shifts bargaining power from Google toward a different set of large platforms.

The trend: The DMA is pushing platform competition policy into the design of search interfaces and developer-distribution tools, with compliance judged by practical rival access.

Discussion

@lewis_crofts Lewis Crofts on x
Ahead of a huge week in tech regulation, @nytimes lays out the chnages you can expect from @Google, @Apple, @Meta, @Microsoft and others. https://www.nytimes.com/... @dmccabe
@martijnrasser Martijn Rasser on x
and “in some ways, the rules could directly lead to less choice for consumers. https://www.ft.com/...
@rasmus_kleis Rasmus Kleis Nielsen on x
“Nu Wexler, a former employee [of] Google, Meta and Twitter ... said the tech firms were “making more concessions” and “are being more pragmatic."" DSA is best-in-class, even as developments in e.g. 🇮🇳 suggest “pragmatism” & “concessions” can be worrying https://www.nytimes.com/.…
@martijnrasser Martijn Rasser on x
Scepticism among EU entrepreneurs: “The reason this law was made was to repair the damage done to competition. This is not happening. It might even be damaging us.”
@martijnrasser Martijn Rasser on x
“EU officials privately say they are keen to show they are not just “idiot bureaucrats”... But the question...will be whether they are willing to entertain the “nuclear option” of breaking up companies that repeatedly break the law, with all the...turmoil that would bring.”
@martijnrasser Martijn Rasser on x
Spicy piece on the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Are the regs having the intended effect? On the whole, no. And some key unintended consequences: Big Tech has limited most tech changes to EU users, making wider adoption unlikely... https://www.ft.com/... via @ft
@geradinlaw Damien Geradin on x
Happy to be quoted in this @nytimes' article by @trippmickle on @Apple's terrible DMA compliance plan. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jessefelder Jesse Felder on x
‘By Thursday, Google will have changed how it displays certain search results. Microsoft will no longer have Windows customers use its Bing by default. And Apple will give iPhone users access to rival app stores and payment systems for the first time.’ https://www.nytimes.com/...

Chronicles