New Google search rules: negative for restaurant and hotel owners

Lobby groups representing airlines and hotels have expressed outrage over possible changes that Alphabet's Google may make to European regulations. The Airlines for Europe association, whose members include Air France KLM and the owner of British Airways, along with the Hotrec hotel group and other groups have expressed concern.

It is about the amendments that Google makes to its applications. According to XM.com, this could completely change the dynamics of online search results for tourism infrastructure.

We are talking about the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which was unveiled on March 6, according to which Google, along with five other tech giants, must comply with a list of rules.

Representatives of hotels and restaurants noted that the changes should not lead to situations where "the economic power of large online intermediaries will be further strengthened and where consumers will not be provided with a variety of choices."

According to experts, some companies may lose 50% of their online traffic and millions of euros in revenue due to Google's innovations in search results.

Why tourism representatives are outraged

The eu travel tech lobbying group, representing Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb, has criticized Google over suspicions that it favors its products over competitors, violating the DMA rules designed to address such situations.

According to the group, Google continues to favor its services in its search engine, including comparison products for hotels, flights, entertainment, and car rentals, making them more prominent, interactive, and rich than other search results.

Google's response

According to the newspaper, the world's most popular search engine has declined to comment officially. However, in a blog post on Monday, March 11, it mentioned the new rules for issuing information in search. It is noted that the search results favor large intermediaries and aggregators with more traffic and less for hotels, airlines, retailers, and restaurants.

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