Google stops demoting EU publishers under its spam policy from Sunday

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August 28, 2026, 9:02 AM

• •The exemption applies across the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.
• •Google's underlying site reputation abuse policy remains in force outside Europe.
• •The European Commission opened a DMA investigation in November 2025 over the policy's effect on publisher revenue models.
• •Publishers had argued that sponsored sections, affiliate reviews, and commercial partnerships were being swept up by enforcement.
• •The announced change affects manual actions, not necessarily the algorithmic ranking systems that shape daily search visibility.
• •A DMA violation could expose Alphabet to fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.

Google will stop applying manual Search demotions tied to its site reputation abuse policy to users in the EU, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein from 30 August. The move is aimed at resolving a European Commission investigation under the Digital Markets Act into whether the policy unfairly hurt publishers using sponsored or partner content. Google says it still opposes deceptive "parasite SEO" practices and is changing enforcement rather than abandoning the policy worldwide. The change leaves publishers with limited relief because algorithmic ranking systems remain in place and Brussels has not yet said whether the concession is sufficient.

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