Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google says the EU Digital Markets Act is raising prices, slowing innovation, and hurting small businesses.
- The company cites studies and figures suggesting travel searches are worse and new products are delayed in Europe.
- The DMA was partly designed to rein in big tech power, so Google isn’t a neutral voice in this debate.
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was written to rein in giants like Google, Apple, and Meta. You won’t be surprised to learn that Google isn’t thrilled about it, claiming the law is causing “significant and unintended harm” to European users and businesses.
In a blog post, Google says travel is a big pain point. It claims the DMA now causes Search to prioritize booking sites over direct airline and hotel links. The company argues that this means higher prices for consumers and up to 30% less free traffic for tourism businesses. Google also cites a study suggesting the EU economy could lose as much as €114 billion in revenue as a result of the law.
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Google has more to back up its arguments, signposting a survey of 5,000 Europeans that found two-thirds of the participants now spend longer hunting for relevant results than before the DMA, and 42% of frequent travelers say flight and hotel searches are worse. Google has complained about the legislation before, warning in an earlier post that it risks exposing people in Europe to more malware and fraud.
The company also claims the law is slowing things down on the innovation side. It says new AI products are being launched up to a year later in Europe compared to the rest of the world.
Obviously, Google isn’t exactly a neutral party in this debate. The DMA exists because regulators believe companies like Google hold too much power, and it’s supposed to stop them from favoring their own services. The studies Google cites may be persuasive, but research around legislation often comes from groups with a stake in the outcome. That doesn’t make any findings invalid, but it does mean you might choose to take them with a pinch of salt.
Google insists it has made significant changes to comply with the law, from data portability tools to tweaks in Search. But it wants Brussels to rethink how the law is enforced, calling for rules that are “user-driven, fact-based, consistent and clear.”
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