Google has changed its spam policy in the European Union after regulators raised concerns that the rules could unfairly hurt publishers and news websites. The move could help Google avoid a major EU antitrust fine under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The change follows complaints from publishers about Google’s site reputation abuse policy, which targets websites that publish third-party content to benefit from the host website’s search ranking signals. This practice is often called parasite SEO.
Why Did the EU Challenge Google?
The European Commission found that Google’s policy could demote news media and other publishers in search results when their websites contained content from commercial partners.
The EU opened an investigation under the Digital Markets Act, which is designed to limit the market power of major technology companies.
Google has now agreed to change how the policy works in Europe.
What Is Changing?
Starting August 30, 2026, Google said manual actions that demote websites under the policy will no longer apply to users in the 27 EU countries, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
The change applies across the European Economic Area (EEA).
However, Google confirmed that its spam policy will remain unchanged outside the EEA.
The change means publishers in the affected countries will no longer face demotion under this specific policy simply because they host third-party content.
EU Commission Official Statement
The European Commission welcomed Google’s decision.
EU Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said: “We welcome the repeal of this policy, which unfairly penalised publishers and other business users of Google Search.”
Regnier also said: “Thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content.”
The Commission said it will continue monitoring Google’s new policy to ensure it follows the DMA.
