Recent changes made by Google to its search result page as European Union tech regulation standards impact Airlines for Europe (A4E), a major lobby group whose members include Air France KLM and Lufthansa, among others, have received a nod. The group welcomed the changes as positive because they move the process in the right direction with regard to fairness in searching.
EU Airlines Welcome Google’s Compliance with New Search Regulations
The updates are in response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to rein in monopolistic behaviors by big tech platforms. Google has been changing the layout of its search results for quite some time now, trying to quell the airlines, price-comparison sites, and other players’ concerns about its stranglehold on search visibility.
In its latest round of updates unveiled last month, Google refined how it formats flight prices and links to books a flight. The adjustments are meant to enable consumers to compare fares and book on the airlines’ websites without crying foul that the third parties’ sites were favored in the search results.
Airlines for Europe said it was hopeful these changes would achieve this, stating that it would allow airlines to directly engage with consumers with less intermediation. It also kept the message of economic proportionality in the digital marketplace dealing with tourism businesses and travelers meaningful.
Google’s desire to engage with regulators and industry associations is indicative of its attempt to operate in the context of the rapidly tightening European legal landscape. However, continuous monitoring shows that this might only be the start of other changes to its online environment.
Google Faces Pressure to Comply with DMA as Airlines Show Willingness to Compromise
Google is in the ongoing process of implementing solutions that will address the EU Digital Markets Act, also known as DMA, that seeks to curb the discrimination of rivals by the big technology firms. If Google failed to stick with the DMA, it could lead to fines according to the algorithm of up to 10% of its global turnover each year. This is kind of serving new stringent requirements where the tech giant is changing its search results and advertisement formats.
In an attempt to minimize the penalties, Google is restructuring how services appear and are placed on its market. It called for the changes in order to ban the possibility of Google providing certain preferences to its products over those of third-party companies. It has become a new plan to be synchronized with the new tendency of the EU’s attempts to rein in the market power of the large technology firms.
The lobbying organization that brings together Airlines for Europe, including giants like Air France KLM and Lufthansa, has been in support of Google’s compliance efforts. However, the group noted that a balanced solution would therefore entail adjustments across the board, including the airline industries. This is in order with the spirit of the DMA, where fairness has been tilted towards digital market competition.
Written on December 20, Airlines for Europe claimed its readiness to cooperate with regulators to come up with a timely and efficient solution. This group stressed that the airline sector understands the role of compliance with the DMA and is willing to make changes to its actions to create a balanced digital space.
Nevertheless, it also pointed to the airline industry’s determination to secure the right result for consumers and to promote the cause of transparency. Airlines for Europe wants to achieve a resolution while working under the confines of the Digital Markets Act; with this, the organization demonstrated its eagerness to compromise.
Airlines Back Google’s Search Changes with Conditions on Price and Date Transparency
Interestingly, Airlines for Europe has expressed their approval of the changes that Google intends to make to its search result’s format of arranging the SERPs in a horizontal manner, which consists of equal-sized boxes for the airlines and for the comparison sites. This layout the group thinks would make it better to have a fairer display of flight options as well as lead to more competition. They also endorsed Google’s use of blue color to differentiate flight options, contending that it would improve a much cleaner and more transparent one.
But the group remained skeptical on the actual information regarding the pricing factors. Despite the fact that graphical search results allow presenting a greater number of airlines within a very limited space, uninstalling the prospect of directly guiding users to given companies’ pages, Airlines for Europe maintained that prices shown within the frames of graphical search results should be absolutely identical to prices indicated in specified boxes. This, they say, is important to ensure that consumers have confidence in the information they are given across the two platforms and that they receive timely information when comparing flights.
Another important issue that can not satisfy the commission is an idea of Google to provide flight’ searches based exclusively on indicative dates, not on concrete dates. Airlines for Europe claimed that this move could substantially reduce the quality of experience offered to users. Costs like these that are directly tied to dates are essential for consumers planning on flying in airplanes, and hypothetical ranges that could only muddy the waters would only anger and confound anyone planning on taking a flight.
The three concerns that Google has addressed within the format of ongoing debates are: If people are dissatisfied with new changes but want to remain using Google search as before, the company has the option of implementing the old version of the search page that used to provide only ten blue hyperlinked results on the page. The company has declared that it may consider reverting to the previous, less complex design if representatives of airline businesses and price comparison sites are unable to agree on how to obey the EU’s Digital Markets Act regulation without compromising their offers’ competitiveness with Google products.
On the one hand, the specifics of the actions of the airline group—their support of Google modifications coupled with concerns—demonstrate the ongoing process of negotiation between industry participants. Although proponents of change suggest that these shifts will be of help in some way or another, only if these three questions are answered appropriately—questions like, Will there be a common and stabilized price offered on a frequent basis? and Are the specifics associated with flight dates adequately discerned?"—will the changes go down well and be smoothly instituted?
