Google will run a "short test" of plain "blue link" hotel search results in Belgium, Estonia and Germany, removing the map view and featured hotel listings that travel aggregators claim breach the EU's Digital Markets Act. Direct booking clicks to airlines, hotel operators and small retailers have already dropped by around 30% following Google's earlier DMA compliance changes, according to a company blog post published Tuesday and attributed to Oliver Bethell, Google's director of legal.

The stakes are material for European hoteliers and distributors. The DMA carries penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover for noncompliance, and Alphabet has been under formal Commission investigation since March over rich search features that rivals argue undermine the regulation's ban on self-preferencing.

What does the test remove?

Google says the exercise will strip out the contested features entirely for hotel queries in the three markets:

• Removal of the map showing hotel locations and the hotel results underneath it
• A plain list of individual website links, "similar to our old 'ten blue links' format from years ago"
• Results return to "normal" once the data-gathering test ends, though Google has not specified a duration

Bethell framed the test as a reluctant concession. "While many stakeholders are happy with our changes, a few sites continue to demand more, such as a complete ban on anything that's more sophisticated than a simple blue link to a website. This would prevent Google from showing people useful information like prices and ratings," he wrote.

The map-and-pricing unit has driven hotel search traffic directly to supplier websites, sidelining comparison and metasearch players. Its removal in the three test markets could rebalance traffic toward online travel agencies and intermediaries — or, if Google's argument about degraded search quality holds, reduce overall booking intent flowing through the channel.

How is Google positioning the changes?

Beyond the blue-link test, Google announced it will display "expanded and equally formatted" units for product, restaurant, flight and hotel searches, letting users choose between rival comparison sites, metasearch engines and review sites or direct supplier websites. New formats will let comparison sites and suppliers show prices and pictures, and Google will launch new ad units for comparison sites. No visual examples were provided.

"We think the latest proposal is the right way to balance the difficult trade-offs that the DMA involves," Google wrote, adding that it "still hope[s] to be able to reach a solution that complies with the law and continues to provide European users and businesses with access to helpful technology."

Bethell pressed the argument that DMA compliance is degrading search quality for Europeans and preventing Google from "innovating and competing" — a line that implicitly warns hotel suppliers that plain-link results could reduce their visibility.

What happens next?

The European Commission will decide what fair compliance looks like. "All we can say is that we're currently assessing Google's compliance proposals," EU spokeswoman Lea Zuber said.

Pressure on Google is widening. Last week DuckDuckGo urged the Commission to broaden its DMA probe, accusing Google of withholding comprehensive "click and query" data from rivals and arguing that DMA-mandated choice screens still make it too hard for users to switch away from Google products. Hotel operators and aggregators in Belgium, Estonia and Germany should watch the test's traffic effects closely; the outcome will shape how Commission enforcers define acceptable search design — and where European booking traffic flows.