What:European comparison shopping services have urged the EU to require mandatory Google Shopping participation across all search result boxes, warning that a Google-operated "box" would force retailers back onto Google's own platform.

Why it is important: The outcome will determine whether retailers gain genuine alternatives to Google Shopping or face a stronger, harder-to-avoid form of self-preferencing dressed up as compliance.

A coalition of European shopping comparison sites, grouped under European Comparison Shopping Services (CSS), has written an open letter warning the European Commission that its proposed remedies for Google Search could backfire. The letter follows the Commission's finding that Google is non-compliant with Article 6(5) of the Digital Markets Act, which bars gatekeepers from self-preferencing their own services in search results; Google has 60 days to fix it.

CSS's central concern is a "box-to-box" model, where comparison shopping services would compete to display their own advertising boxes within Google results. The group argues that if Google were allowed to run its own competing box, retailers would be forced to advertise through Google's own comparison shopping service simply to remain visible in search.

CSS asked the Commission to give Google room to design a solution tested with real-world data and safeguards, rather than rigid legal formulas, to avoid returning to a "pre-2017" era of Google dominance (currently estimated above 50% market share). It called for mandatory Google Shopping participation across all boxes as an essential safeguard against "kingmaking."

IADS Notes: The letter follows a pattern of EU regulatory pressure on Google's search dominance, after the bloc had already pushed the company to open its search data to third-party competitors (a Reuters report from April 2026). Regulatory scrutiny of Google's search behaviour has extended beyond the EU, with UK authorities separately mandating changes to how Google's AI search summaries use and display publisher content (as covered by Bloomberg in June 2026). At the same time, Google has been expanding its footprint deeper into the retail transaction itself, notably through its Universal Cart, which centralises multi-retailer purchasing within Google's own ecosystem and has already raised questions about platform control and retailer autonomy (an analysis published by Forbes in May 2026). Against that backdrop, CSS's warning reflects a broader concern that remedies aimed at curbing Google's dominance in search could, if poorly designed, further entrench the company's position across adjacent parts of the retail funnel.

European Commission warned changes to Google Search could backfire