Google: EU DMA Changes Resulted In Largest Reduction In Search Quality

Google has rolled out its Digital Markets Act changes in Europe and called it the "largest reduction in quality" in the life of Google Search. "The changes mark the largest reduction in quality of service ‌at the world's most popular internet search engine in its 29-year search history," Google official told Reuters.

It seems this is specific to the vertical search services (VSS) and not the site reputation abuse policy EEU change from last week. Reuters wrote:

"Google said it sees that in reality the ​changes favor price comparison sites, also known as vertical search services (VSS), linked to sectors including ​hotels, airlines and restaurants, such as Expedia or Booking.com. They get more prominence in ⁠search results over companies in those sectors that are listed with just a link to their websites, ​telephone numbers and address."

"The revamped search results will ​highlight one specialized search engine at the top of the page, followed by two others with fewer details while a ‌carousel ⁠of hotels, airlines and restaurants for example will sit below them with key features such as real-time prices stripped out. The rankings will be determined by Google's algorithm."

Google tested this in 2024 and provided these results, but the European Commission did not care. Google wrote then:

• People were measurably less satisfied with their search results and it took them longer to find hotels, including by having to do more searches. More people also gave up and did not find what they were looking for.
• Overall, traffic to hotels and intermediary sites went down.
• Hotels lost the most traffic (more than 10%), affecting hundreds of thousands of European hotels.
• Traffic to intermediary sites largely stayed flat.

I do find it funny that Google measures quality here by traffic to the hotel web sites and based on having to do more searches. When AI Overviews and AI Mode but lead to less traffic directly to web sites and also it leads to more searches done by users.

We covered the Google Search DMA changes a lot here, so check out those archives.

This is just a big statement from Google, "largest reduction in quality" in its 29 year history.

Google also added a new document about the regional differences with its search result pages.

Forum discussion at X.

Update: These posts from Lluc can be helpful in visualizing what was updated:

For hotel searches, the biggest change:
The traditional Hotel Local Pack disappears.

It is replaced by a multi-provider module featuring https://t.co/1Fxxis8b7S, Expedia, Priceline, Reserving and other travel platforms — alongside Google.

2/7 pic.twitter.com/VRIhXs7Kvm

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

There’s another important change.
The previous Places Sites module is replaced by a dedicated Hotel Sites module.
This surfaces individual hotels, prices and links to their official websites.
Hotels haven’t disappeared from the SERP, but the competitive environment has changed.

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

This is much more than a UI change.
It changes how visibility is distributed between:

→ Hotels
→ OTAs
→ Comparison services
→ Google

And potentially changes how travellers move from a generic hotel search to a booking.

4/7

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

Google’s own assessment is striking.
Reuters quotes Google:
“The changes mark the largest reduction in quality of service at the world’s most popular internet search engine in its 29-year search history.”

All of this comes as Google responds to the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
5/7

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

For hotels, the direction is clear:
The Direct Channel loses visibility while OTAs and other intermediaries gain a more prominent position in the search journey.

The question is no longer whether these changes will affect direct bookings.

6/7

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

The question is:
What can hotels do to adapt, minimise the impact and protect their Direct Channel?

Now we need to measure the impact — and rethink how SEO, Local, Hotel Ads and distribution work together in this new SERP.

This is just the beginning.
7/7

— Lluc B. Penycate Ⓐ (@Lluc_SEO) September 8, 2026

Flights, Airlines, and Flight sites pic.twitter.com/tLODA3GKnK

— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 9, 2026

Product sites. But this time including one that does not provide the proper structured data. pic.twitter.com/HUDXxWiJea

— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 9, 2026

Hotels from Tripadvisor and Triago. This is an organic ranking. But the slider replaces the snippet. pic.twitter.com/dJRG6x88Br

— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 9, 2026

A map of hotels. But you cannot actually click on the map. I repeat: clicking on the map does not take you to Google Maps. pic.twitter.com/Ur9HppDRHL

— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 9, 2026