Airlines, Hotels & More Fear Google SEO Algorithm Changes

Lobbying groups representing airlines, hotels, and retailers have asked European Union tech regulators to ensure Google considers their interests and not just those of prominent intermediaries when making changes to its SEO algorithm to accommodate the new tech regulations.

The changes come from the EU’s DMA (Digital Markets Act), which consists of dos and don’ts Google and five other tech giants need to follow to offer users more choices and rivals more favorable chances to compete.

In a March blog post, Google confirmed that the modifications in its search algorithm would drive more traffic for large intermediaries and aggregators and less for airlines, hotels, restaurants, and retailers.

As a result, many European hotels, airlines, and retailers expressed their concerns that the new regulations would hurt their revenues. These include members of the Airlines for Europe group, such as British Airways owner IAG and Air France KLM, European Hotel Forum, hotel group Hotrec, Ecommerce Europe, Independent Retail Europe, and EuroCommerce.

They believe the non-compliance investigation opened by the European Commission investigating Google for possible DMA breaches considers only the fair treatment of third-party services without acknowledging the interests of direct European sellers who offer their services on Google.

The affected companies expressed their fears and concerns in a joint letter dated May 22 addressed to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager and EU industry chief Thierry Breton. The letter stated that their worries have mounted since the DMA was enacted.

“Our industries have serious concerns that currently considered solutions and requirements for implementing the DMA could further increase discrimination,” they wrote, adding: “Initial observations indicate that these changes risk severely depleting direct sales revenues of companies by giving more prominence to powerful online intermediaries due to the preferential treatment they would receive.”

Google has yet to provide more details on how and to what extent the changes in its algorithm will impact the concerned parties. The European Commission also hasn’t commented on the issue.