Published on Jul 01, 2025
Welcome to The European Antitrust Agenda, written by Europe Executive Editor Javier Espinoza and Senior Correspondents Charley Connor, Vesela Gladicheva and Lydia O’Neal. This week, Google is up for a grilling over its compliance with the EU’s digital antitrust regime and the Irish media watchdog is getting a slew of complaints related to the bloc’s content moderation rules.
Google’s search redesigns draw pushback. Google (GOOG) will present its efforts under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and its new artificial intelligence features today at a Brussels hearing hosted by the European Commission. But the real action happens early next week, when the Alphabet unit is set to face pointed questions from frustrated trade groups and rivals of its travel and shopping verticals about its latest proposed Search revamp.
In an effort to avoid a fine from the commission, which charged Google with violating the DMA’s ban on self-favoring by Big Tech “gatekeepers” in March, the company last month proposed a new format for travel and shopping search results.
The designs feature boxes presenting category-specific search services like Expedia (EXPE) and comparison shopping websites, populated with results from their sites and direct links to the sites of products and services the intermediaries advertise.
The intermediaries’ goal is to get placement in that first, most visible box, in what some worry is a winner-takes-all system. Google’s search design mock-up documents say placement will be “based on objective and non-discriminatory criteria,” and that it won’t use the intermediaries’ data to compete with them or share it with others “absent consent.” But Google’s competitors want clarity on what exactly these things mean in practice.
Meanwhile, direct sellers argue the designs would further reduce their visibility on the search engine with a more than 90% market share. Airlines for Europe, a trade group, said the mock-ups “merely continue” problematic removals of features that affect flight bookings. Marie Audren, head of hospitality group Hotrec, said the mock-up for hotels “effectively shuts the door on direct connectivity and undermines the ability of independent businesses to reach consumers.”
A Google spokesperson declined to comment.
The designs also don’t account for growing concerns about Google’s AI Overviews, summaries generated by its Gemini model taking up precious real estate at the top of the search results.
Users will only scroll down so far, especially when they receive neat text answers to their queries, noted a representative of online merchants – “no one goes to page two.”
Ireland’s media regulator staffs up to boost tech enforcement. The commission is investigating companies such as X, TikTok, adult content websites and Chinese e-commerce sites like Temu under its content moderation and advertising transparency rules. But hundreds of kilometers outside of Brussels, Ireland’s national media authority is shouldering much of the enforcement of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), part of the bloc’s effort to rein in the power of dominant technology giants.
The Irish Coimisiún na Meán has received over 480 DSA complaints from other EU national authorities since platforms had to begin following the EU’s content moderation and advertising transparency rules in February last year, according to an agency spokesperson. Complaints filed with national regulators are sent to the national agency tasked with DSA regulation in the country where the platform in question is headquartered. In many cases, that’s Ireland, a nation sometimes dubbed the Delaware of Europe for its popularity among large companies looking to incorporate in a business-friendly jurisdiction.
The most common complaints relate to large platforms’ notice-and-action mechanisms for reporting illegal content, restrictions on users’ accounts or their content and access to platforms’ internal complaints handling systems, the spokesperson said. The agency said in September that one in three complaints fell into that first category, and that it had sent requests for information to “a range of platforms” on their approach to options for reporting illegal content.
The Irish regulator, just over two years old, is working to boost its staffing to 300 from the current 215, including additional personnel for its legal team and its division responsible for supervising and investigating online platforms, said the spokesperson.
What Else Is Happening
CMA merger probes stack up. Despite pledging to largely step back from reviewing global deals, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week opened a phase 1 investigation into Getty’s (GETY) $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock (SSTK) and invited comment on Boeing’s (BA) $4.7 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) – the precursor to a potential formal probe. It also began investigating Wabtec’s (WAB) $960 million acquisition of train equipment manufacturer Dellner Couplers, already in phase 2 in Austria.
CMA: Google Search should fall under digital rules. In a provisional decision, the enforcer said Google should have “strategic market status” in general search and search advertising, subjecting it to the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. A final decision is set for October 13.
Don’t sacrifice the DMA, tech groups warn. Seven European startup organizations and a group representing internet companies urged commission officials not to delay or weaken enforcement of the law as part of trade negotiations following reports that such moves were on the table in the bloc’s tariff talks with Washington. “Such a step would call into question the status of the DMA as democratically adopted and binding EU law,” warned the German group Startup Verband and others in a Wednesday letter. The Initiative for Neutral Search said in a Thursday letter that “compromising DMA enforcement would send a disastrous signal.”
Apple offers changes to dodge fines. The iPhone maker unveiled a new two-tiered fee structure for developers in Europe and new ways for them to steer customers to promotions outside the App Store in a bid to avoid DMA penalties it said would’ve come to over €50 million per day. Apple (AAPL) said it paid the €500 million penalty the EU imposed for the company’s infringement of the law’s “anti-steering” rule and will appeal the sanction ahead of a July 7 deadline.
Dutch enforcer warns of ‘threat to democracy’ as it greenlights news media deal. The Netherlands’ competition watchdog said Belgian-based DPG Media Group could acquire rival RTL Nederland, subject to conditions ensuring news pluralism and editorial independence.
Personal care, retail firms raided in Belgium. The Belgian Competition Authority said it inspected companies in the two sectors after hearing of possible anticompetitive agreements.
Shopping bag material maker faces €32 million Italian fine. The country’s competition regulator said ENI SpA entered into exclusive agreements with customers, shutting out potential competitors.
In Their Own Words
In an interview with The Capitol Forum, European Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera refuted a report that EU trade negotiators are considering setting up a committee of experts to handle DMA enforcement, saying “this is not part of any discussion.” More from the interview: “I talk about the digital markets with my counterparts in the United States, the teams in DG competition talk with their counterparts in the United States. It is good to talk about technology. We don’t talk about sovereignty.”
Listen and watch the full interview from Tuesday at 6 a.m. CET.
Events
July 1, July 2 and July 3 at 9 a.m. CET: Alphabet, ByteDance and Meta (META) present their DMA compliance efforts at workshops hosted by the commission in Brussels.
Ribera’s Weekly Calendar
To view European Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera’s schedule for the week, click here.
Links
Handelsblatt: EU suddenly wants to make things easier for US tech companies
Euractiv: Pornhub agrees to age checks in the UK, amid ongoing push-back in France
