On March 7th, European aviation, hotel, and restaurant industry organizations issued a warning, stating that adjustments made by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, to comply with new EU regulations, may lead consumers to shift towards other major online search platforms, thereby damaging the interests of these industries.
Airlines for Europe, Hotrec (European Hotel Association), European Hotel Forum, Eurocommerce, Ecommerce Europe, and Independent Retail Europe have all expressed concerns about this.
This statement comes after Google implemented a series of changes aimed at EU app developers and users. In a blog post on Monday, the company mentioned that adjustments to search results have led to more traffic for large intermediaries and service aggregators, while reducing traffic for hotels, airlines, merchants, and restaurants.
According to EU guidelines set on March 7th under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google and other five major tech companies must fully comply with these regulations.
In a joint statement, these organizations expressed, "Changes should not further strengthen the market power of large online intermediaries, nor should they deprive consumers of diversity of choice."
Sources revealed that due to Google's adjustments to search results, online traffic for some businesses within the industry could decrease by up to 50%, resulting in revenue losses of millions of euros.
Google has not responded to this.
However, EU Travel Tech, representing intermediary organizations, accused Google of continuously favoring its own products and ignoring the changes required by the Digital Markets Act. Its members include companies like Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb.
In a statement, the association criticized, "Google continues to prioritize its own intermediary services on search engine results pages." "In the travel search domain, Google tends to display product comparison information for its hotel, flight, attractions guide, train, and vacation rental services, which are more prominent, interactive, and content-rich than other search results."
