Google Ditches Free Product Listings in Europe Amidst Digital Markets Act Changes
Google Search has made significant changes to its product listings in the European Economic Area (EEA), removing free product listings and carousel formats as a result of the Digital Markets Act. The act, enforced by the European Commission, has led Google to make these changes, which it described as 'the biggest reduction in our search quality ever'. According to Adriaan Dekker, shared on LinkedIn, free listings from Google Shopping are disappearing in the EEA, with space going instead to price comparison services (CSS) or vertical shopping services (VSS).
Hugo Huijer, from Productrise, plotted data showing that 'popular products' carousels - organic product blocks appearing for commercial queries - have almost entirely disappeared from search in the EEA. The chart shows a ~90-100% drop in EEA countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, confirmed that Google removed free product listings due to the DMA ruling in Europe. This change is significant for those regions and will likely affect businesses relying on these features.