Google has overhauled its search service in Europe to comply with the European Union's antitrust rules.
Google said on the 8th (local time) that it revamped search screens and display methods in Europe to comply with the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In July, Google was fined €460 million (about 720 billion won) by the EU for allegedly favoring its own services in search results for shopping and hotels, in violation of the DMA.
At the time, the EU gave Google a 60-day implementation period and said it would periodically impose a compliance penalty of up to 5% of global revenue if it failed to comply.
Accordingly, Google redesigned the search screen so that one particular search engine appears prominently at the very top, with two other search engines with limited details placed below it. Slide-style results for hotels, airlines, and restaurants that used to appear at the top were pushed down, and some features, such as real-time price displays, also disappeared.
Google warned that the overhaul would degrade user experience and increase the expense burden on European local corporations. Google told Reuters that it "will result in the largest drop in service quality in Google's 29-year search history."
In particular, it said that testing the new search screen with millions of European users showed higher dissatisfaction, including more instances where users had to re-enter queries to find the information they wanted.
In response, the EU said, "This overhaul is a measure to create a 'level playing field' where multiple corporations compete equally on the Google search screen."
Meanwhile, in July, the EU separately fined Google €430 million (about 670 billion won) for preventing app developers from directing users for free to cheaper external plans or competing app stores.
Google has been at odds with EU antitrust regulators for nearly 20 years and has been fined a total of €10.38 billion (16.14 trillion won).