The DMA, Google Hotels
& Booking.com
Four years of European platform regulation, mapped against what actually changes for your direct channel — and what happens in the next 60 days.
Timeline
Two legally distinct questions running in parallel: whether Google favours its own services inside Search, and whether hotels can compete fairly with the intermediaries that distribute their inventory. Filter by track, or click any node to jump to the detail.
Calendar tracker
The regulatory record month by month, plus the 60-day remedy window running from the 23 July 2026 decision. The Commission published a 60-day period, not a date — our calculation puts its expiry at 21 September 2026. Tick the actions as you complete them.
60-day compliance window
Regulatory activity by month
The active window, day by day
Shaded days fall inside the period in which Google must bring the Article 6(5) non-compliance to an end.
Your 60-day action tracker
Sequenced so you have a clean baseline before the SERP changes underneath you. These are our recommendations, not regulatory requirements.
At a glance
The numbers that matter, and where each one came from.
Fines in context
Two regulators, two legal instruments. Only the €460m Search decision concerns hotel results — the Google Play fine is shown for scale, not equivalence.
Google's hotel test, Nov–Dec 2024
Hotel map and rich features removed for users in Germany, Belgium and Estonia, replaced with a conventional list of links.
Directional findings only — Google published no magnitudes for the second and third.
Where a hotel booking's value leaks
The DMA touches every step between a guest's intent and your PMS. Each intervention below is now backed by an enforceable obligation.
Fined €460m · remedy due 21 Sep 2026
Enforceable since 14 Nov 2024
Two gatekeepers, two regimes
Both are designated. The obligations, timelines and practical consequences for a hotel are quite different — and only one of them gives you rights you can exercise this quarter.
| Google / Alphabet | Booking.com |
|---|
Evidence quality
Not every item in this timeline carries the same weight. Before you build a business case on any of it, check which column it sits in.
