Google has offered to amend its search "site reputation abuse" policy in a bid to avoid an EU antitrust fine, after publishers complained that the rule was being applied in ways that disproportionately penalised legitimate news sites.
The European Commission opened a formal investigation in November under the Digital Markets Act, after publishers submitted evidence that the policy was hitting their site rankings even when affected pages were unrelated to the activity Google said it was targeting — third-party content placed on a host site to game search results.
Google argues the rule is necessary to keep low-quality affiliate and templated content out of high-prominence search results. The company has now offered to narrow the policy and add new appeals routes, according to officials familiar with the discussion.
The Commission published its statutory five-year review of the Digital Markets Act earlier this month. The review acknowledged successes such as the proliferation of browser choice screens but flagged persistent concerns about gatekeeper compliance.
Brussels is also examining whether to extend the DMA framework to cloud computing services and is investigating Meta's policy of preventing third-party AI providers from using the WhatsApp business API to talk with other chatbots.
Apple, which earlier this year was fined under the DMA, has continued to lobby publicly for the regulation to be repealed. The Commission has said it will not unwind the framework in response to US tariff pressure.