Well, it's happening. European regulators have decided that they want to use the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to make Google Search worse for all European users, so they can prop up European rivals and protect them from competition from Google.
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It's something they couldn't do under competition law, but they can under the DMA because the DMA doesn't care about effects or any justifications for the conduct. It has strict prohibitions that, frankly, mean a lot of pro-competitive conduct has become illegal in Europe.
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Instead of enforcing the law proportionately, the EC has confirmed that they want Google to degrade their services, to make room for "contestability". reuters.com/world/google-warβ¦
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I predicted this would happen based on the description of "regulatory dialogue" that the EC revealed in their decision last week.
Remarkable that the EC engaged in "regulatory dialogue" with Google since before the DMA came into force, and never claims to have explicitly told Google that their compliance with Google Shopping would not be considered compliance with the DMA! "in essence" is shorthand for "they should have read between the lines".
The fact that Google is then fined for each day of "non compliance" without clear direction from the regulator is something that will surely be litigated.
In a situation where there is no need to show effects, I would expect the Court to hold that the rights of defense, for these quasi criminal fines, require a higher standard from the EC than what has been shown in the decision here. Otherwise the incentives are all skewed, and the EC then profits from its own constructive ambiguity.
What was the EC doing since March 2025? If the case had been closed by September 2025, the fine would have been nearly β¬2billion less. Every lawyer who cares about fair process would have legitimate concerns here.
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Google calls this "the largest reduction in search quality in its history", the EC calls it "substantial progress toward compliance".
That tells you everything you need to know.
pro.politico.eu/news/223985
Sep 8, 2026 Β· 4:29 PM UTC
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Intermediaries that have used the apparatus of government to insert themselves between users and the information they're looking for, are of course, celebrating
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How can Europeans be celebrating a degradation of the user experience?
How has this become the standard for acceptable competition policy?
If we continue to hold this up as good digital policy, there's no way we're going to be able to compete in the 21st century.
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What's worse is that, despite these changes, Google has signalled that the EC still hasn't given them any regulatory certainty. The EC is still going to hold the threat of daily fines over Google's head, without clarifying what else it's asking for.
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