Google updates spam policy in EU after €890 million antitrust fine

Google has revised its search spam policies to create a separate set of rules for websites in the European Economic Area, a move designed to head off further antitrust penalties from the European Commission. The update, dated August 28, 2026, allows EEA-based sites that might otherwise face manual actions for violating Google’s site reputation policies to maintain their independent rankings in search results.

The backstory: a billion-dollar nudge

This policy shift came after the European Commission opened a formal investigation on November 13, 2025, into whether Google’s enforcement of its site reputation abuse policy unfairly disadvantaged news publishers and other entities that incorporate third-party commercial content.

The Commission’s core question was straightforward: did Google’s spam enforcement violate the Digital Markets Act’s requirements for fair and non-discriminatory ranking conditions? The DMA, which designated Google as a “gatekeeper” platform, imposes strict obligations on how dominant tech companies treat competitors and business users in their ecosystems.

On July 23, 2026, the European Commission hit Google with an €890 million fine, the first penalty levied against the company under the DMA. The violation was related to self-preferencing, a practice where Google allegedly promoted its own services over competitors in search results. Under the DMA’s enforcement framework, non-compliance can trigger daily fines that accumulate until the company gets in line.

By May 2026, Google had already proposed changes to its anti-spam policies to address the Commission’s concerns about news search and ranking. The August update formalized those proposals into actual policy.

What actually changed

Google’s site reputation abuse policy was originally clarified in 2024 to target a specific practice: websites hosting third-party content primarily to exploit the host site’s ranking signals. The revised policy now introduces geographic distinctions. Sites within the EEA that face potential manual actions for site reputation violations can maintain their independent rankings instead of being penalized with demotion or removal.

Why the DMA keeps biting

The European Commission has spent over a decade pursuing Google through antitrust cases, previously levying billions in fines under traditional competition law for shopping search bias, Android bundling practices, and advertising market conduct. The DMA raised the stakes by codifying many of these concerns into law with automatic enforcement mechanisms. Companies designated as gatekeepers don’t need to lose a multi-year court battle to face consequences, and the daily penalty provisions create continuous pressure to comply.

What this means for publishers and the broader market

For European publishers, the policy change could be materially positive. Many news organizations have come to rely on third-party content partnerships as a revenue diversification strategy, particularly as traditional display advertising yields have declined. Having those pages rank independently rather than face potential penalties restores a monetization pathway that Google’s earlier enforcement had threatened.

For investors, the €890 million fine itself is pocket change relative to Alphabet’s balance sheet. The more relevant financial consideration is the precedent it sets, as compliance costs and potential revenue adjustments could become a recurring line item for tech platforms operating in Europe given the daily fine mechanism.

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