Google said on Friday that it had revised its spam policy in the European Economic Area (EEA) in response to an investigation by the European Commission under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company faces a potential fine of up to 10% of its global annual revenue.

According to the Commission, Google’s rules targeting the misuse of website reputations unfairly lowered the search rankings of news organizations and publishers when they hosted content from third parties or commercial partners.

Google confirmed that from 30 August, it will no longer take manual action to lower the rankings of such websites in the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

The policy will remain unchanged outside the EEA.

The European Commission welcomed the decision and said it would closely monitor implementation of the revised policy to ensure that Google fully complies with the law.

(Reuters, Max)