By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Alphabet's (NASDAQ ) Google's proposed changes to its search results to comply with EU technology legislation have received the go-ahead from lobby group Airlines for Europe, whose members include Air France KLM ( OTC and Lufthansa.
Google has announced a series of changes to search result formats in recent months following conflicting demands from price comparison sites, hotels, airlines and small retailers, with the latest adjustments announced last month.
It is trying to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which prohibits it from favoring its own products and services on its platform or risk fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
“In the spirit of finding a solution that complies with the DMA in a timely manner, the airline industry has shown that it is willing to reach an agreement,” Airlines for Europe said in a letter to the European Commission dated December 20 and seen by Reuters.
The airline group expressed support for the horizontal design of equal-sized boxes for airlines and comparison sites in search results, as well as the color blue to distinguish them from other elements.
But he said the prices shown in the search results should be the same on the graph as in the charts. He also expressed concern about Google's proposal for a purely indicative date rather than specific dates for consumers looking to book flights.
“Features such as dates are an integral part of the overall search process of consumers looking for air travel and changing to a purely indicative date will degrade their
experience significantly,” the group says.
Google has said it may return to an old format of 10 blue links in search results that it used years ago if rivals – such as airlines and price comparison sites – cannot agree on their proposals to comply with the WFD and Don't promote your own products. .
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