Starting Sunday, Google will no longer penalize EU publishers under its spam policy.

      Starting Sunday, a European news publisher that employs sponsored content on its platform will no longer face the risk of being manually demoted in Google Search results. Google confirmed this update on Friday, and Reuters reported that it aims to resolve an investigation by the European Commission that could have led to a fine.

      The company announced that manual actions that demote websites will no longer apply to users in the 27 EU nations, alongside Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, beginning August 30. The policy remains unchanged in the rest of the world, meaning that the same webpage can rank differently based on the searcher's location.

      The concern revolves around Google's site reputation abuse policy, which was established in March 2024 and expanded in November to target what the search industry refers to as parasite SEO. This practice involves placing third-party content on a well-established domain, allowing the content to benefit from the host's authority in search results.

      For nearly two years, publishers have contended that the enforcement targeted the wrong individuals. Sponsored sections, affiliate reviews, and commercial partnerships are typical revenue sources for news organizations, and a manual demotion could quickly eliminate one of these from search results.

      The Commission acknowledged this issue as deserving investigation. It initiated a case on November 12, 2025, under the Digital Markets Act to evaluate whether the policy penalized publishers for legitimate revenue-generating methods.

      At that time, Google described the investigation as misguided and has maintained its stance on the subject. A spokesperson told Reuters, “Our priority is to ensure Search results remain beneficial for users and to protect them from deceptive practices like 'parasite SEO' spam that diminishes the integrity of the web.”

      What has changed is the enforcement mechanism, not the principle itself. Manual actions are those imposed by a human reviewer on specific sites, and they received the most complaints from publishers due to their direct impact on named domains.

      The urgency of this situation can be attributed to the potential significant fines under the DMA, which can reach up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue—an amount substantial enough for Alphabet that making a policy adjustment appears advantageous.

      Google had previously indicated it would take action. In May, it submitted a remedies package to the Commission, proposing modifications on how the policy would apply to news domains and enhancing the transparency of its effects on publisher pages, although full details were not disclosed.

      Friday's announcement is the first instance where the specifics of that proposal have been made clear externally. It is also narrower than some publishers had anticipated, as it addresses manual demotions rather than the algorithmic systems that handle most daily ranking operations.

      Whether this will satisfy Brussels remains uncertain, and the Commission has not commented. Regulators have the option to accept commitments, request further changes, or continue toward a formal conclusion, and nothing in Google's statement rules out any of those possibilities.

      For search professionals, the practical outcome results in a genuinely divided rulebook. Guidance on parasite SEO must now specify a jurisdiction, and a compliance decision made in Dublin might not apply in New York.

      For publishers, the relief is tangible but limited. The revenue stream that the policy risked is now protected from one particular type of penalty in a specific region, but this does not guarantee where a page will rank in the coming month.

      Additionally, there is a precedent that neither party seems eager to clarify. A gatekeeper that can deactivate an enforcement mechanism for one area with two days' notice indicates that the mechanism has always been discretionary.

      Alphabet has faced this scenario previously, most notably with the €2.4 billion shopping fine in 2017, and its recent trend has been to concede regarding the enforcement mechanism while defending its rationale. Sunday’s adjustment closely follows this pattern.

      The next step lies with the Commission, which will determine whether a regional exemption constitutes a remedy or is merely symbolic. Until it clarifies its position, Europe will experience a slightly altered version of Google.