Google rolls out changes to search results in the EU to comply with the DMA, saying they mark the largest reduction in quality of service in Search's history (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

Google’s EU search changes to comply with the Digital Markets Act signal a material shift in how dominant digital platforms can surface traffic and services, with Google itself warning of a meaningful degradation in search quality. For CIOs and technology leaders, this underscores growing regulatory pressure on platform ecosystems, which can affect customer acquisition, referral traffic, and dependence on Google’s search and comparison-shopping flows across European markets. IT organizations should expect ongoing product and policy changes from major cloud and platform providers as regulators reshape digital competition.