The Scope of the Digital Markets Act
The catalyst for this transformation is the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of legislation designed to foster fair competition in digital markets. The DMA identifies certain companies—including Google’s parent company, Alphabet—as "gatekeepers." These entities are subject to strict regulations aimed at preventing them from leveraging their dominance to stifle competition or favor their own services at the expense of rival businesses.
The removal of product carousels is part of Google’s effort to avoid "self-preferencing," a practice where a gatekeeper uses its platform to give its own services an unfair advantage over third-party alternatives. By removing the integrated product carousels—which often linked directly to Google’s own comparison shopping features—the company is attempting to create a more neutral search environment. However, the result has been a significant disruption to the organic visibility of thousands of online retailers who previously relied on these slots to reach potential customers without paying for advertising.
A Rapid Rollout: The Data Behind the Decline
The rollout of these changes has been remarkably swift. Industry analysts and monitoring services, such as the Dutch platform Productrise, have observed an almost instantaneous impact on search result pages across all European Union member states, as well as Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
According to data compiled by Productrise, the visibility of these organic product blocks has plummeted by 90 to 100 percent in just a matter of days. While users in markets outside the EEA—including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia—continue to see the standard product carousels, the experience for European consumers has been fundamentally altered. This geographical disparity highlights the localized impact of the DMA, forcing a divergence in how search results are served globally.
The implications for retailers are stark. For years, businesses have optimized their Google Merchant Center feeds and structured data to appear in these high-value carousels. With these slots now largely removed, the organic traffic flow that supported countless small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been severed. Hugo Huijer, founder of Productrise, describes the situation as a "fundamental shift" in the digital retail ecosystem, noting that companies which built their growth strategies around these specific search features are now forced to rethink their entire online marketing approach.
Changes to User Navigation and Search Behavior
Beyond the disappearance of the visual product carousels, the search experience has become more fragmented. Industry observers, including Kristian Kunz of the German platform SEO Südwest, have pointed out that Google has also removed the dedicated "Shopping" tab from the primary navigation menu in the affected regions.
Previously, users could toggle to the Shopping tab to view a curated list of products from various retailers. That option is now largely inaccessible, and in many instances, it cannot be found even under the "More" dropdown menu. Consequently, users looking for product comparisons are now directed to lists of third-party aggregators and price comparison websites.
This shift creates a higher barrier to entry for the average consumer. Where a user once could see product images, prices, and merchant names instantly upon searching, they must now navigate through several additional clicks to reach the same information. Critics of this change argue that it degrades the quality of the search experience, transforming a seamless discovery process into a more cumbersome, multi-step journey.
Economic Implications for European Retailers
The economic ramifications of this shift are multifaceted. For large, established retailers, the loss of organic carousel space may be partially mitigated by strong brand recognition and direct traffic. However, for smaller retailers who have traditionally relied on Google to provide visibility against larger competitors, the loss of organic placement is a significant blow.
The reliance on Google Merchant Center, once a cornerstone of retail SEO strategy, has been thrown into question. As the visibility of these organic listings declines, the relative importance of paid Google Shopping Ads grows. This creates a potential irony: in attempting to comply with the DMA by reducing its own influence, Google may be inadvertently steering retailers toward a heavier reliance on paid advertising to regain the visibility they lost organically.
Furthermore, the shift suggests that SEO strategy will likely pivot back toward category-level optimization. With individual product pages no longer being showcased in carousels, retailers may need to focus more heavily on ranking their broader category pages to capture search intent.
The Broader Context: A Challenging Era for Organic Search
The removal of product carousels is not an isolated event but part of a broader trend of declining organic visibility on Google. For several years, search engine results pages (SERPs) have become increasingly dominated by Google’s own features, such as AI Overviews, knowledge panels, and specialized snippets.
Recent research conducted in Germany indicates that the share of organic traffic in total website traffic has been steadily shrinking. As Google integrates more generative AI and proprietary widgets into the search experience, the space available for traditional "ten blue links" or organic product listings continues to contract. This environment creates a "zero-click" search landscape, where users find the information they need without ever leaving the Google platform, a trend that poses an existential challenge for content creators and online retailers alike.
Reactions and Future Outlook
Google’s own communication regarding these changes has been cautious. In its statements, the company has characterized the move as a necessary step to comply with the DMA, though it has also acknowledged the impact on search quality. The company has framed the decline in result quality as a byproduct of the regulatory requirements imposed by the European Commission, a sentiment that highlights the ongoing tension between regulatory intervention and the evolution of search technology.
For the retail industry, the coming months will be a period of intense adjustment. Retailers must decide whether to shift their resources toward paid advertising, invest in social commerce, or double down on brand building to drive direct traffic. The consensus among SEO professionals is that the "golden age" of free, organic product discovery via Google search is effectively coming to an end in the European market.
As legal and regulatory bodies continue to monitor the impact of the DMA, it is possible that further adjustments will be made. The European Commission has expressed its intent to ensure that these regulations result in a more competitive market rather than a less functional one. However, in the immediate term, the burden of adaptation falls squarely on the shoulders of the retailers who are currently navigating a rapidly changing search environment.
In summary, the removal of product carousels in the EEA represents a seismic shift in digital commerce. It serves as a reminder of the power search engines hold over the visibility of the global economy and the profound impact that regulatory decisions can have on the day-to-day operations of thousands of businesses. As retailers adapt to this new reality, the industry will likely see a significant redistribution of web traffic, a heightened focus on alternative acquisition channels, and an ongoing debate regarding the true cost of "fair competition" in the digital age. Whether this change will ultimately lead to a healthier, more competitive marketplace or simply a more expensive one remains to be seen. For now, European retailers must prepare for a future where organic search visibility can no longer be taken for granted.
