Google will change its spam rules in the European Union starting August 30 to address concerns from European regulators that could result in fines for violating competition rules, the company announced Friday.
The change refers to Google’s policy, which seeks to prevent the publication of third-party content on web pages in order to take advantage of signals that enable those sites to rank better in search results, a practice known as “parasite SEO”.
The European Commission determined that this policy reduced the visibility of websites and content of media and other publishers in Google’s search results when they contained materials from commercial partners.
Google announced that as of August 30, the measures that reduce the ranking of websites will not apply to users in 27 EU member states and Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
The policy outside the European Economic Area will not change, the company added.
Concerns about the policy prompted the European Commission, which oversees market competition in the EU, to launch an investigation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to limit the power of large technology companies.
For violating the DMA, companies can be fined up to ten percent of their global annual revenue.