Google Shopping following the DMA changes: The numbers after six weeks

As of: 27 October 2026

In mid-September, we described what happened to Google Shopping in the EU: the organic product grids disappeared, replaced by a box featuring comparison shopping services. You can find the article here: Google Shopping hasn’t disappeared. The space now belongs to comparison services.

Back then, there were mainly screenshots and initial impressions. Six weeks on, the first measurements going beyond individual observations are available: an analysis of over ten million search results, Google’s own documentation, an initial statement from the EU Commission, and figures from comparison services. This article contextualises them. Throughout, we distinguish between what is verified and what is our assessment.

The essentials in 30 seconds

• The old space is practically entirely gone. According to tracking provider Productrise, organic product carousels plunged by 90 to 100 per cent in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Outside the EEA, nothing has changed.

• The new comparison box is rare, but targeted. According to SISTRIX, on google.de it appears in 5.9 per cent of all search results, but in 19.2 per cent of searches with commercial intent, and then usually near the top.

• The most frequent provider in the box is Google itself. In Germany, Google Shopping sits expanded in 1st place in 17.5 per cent of the boxes, and appears somewhere inside in nearly four out of five boxes.

• Behind it are not just the well-known price comparison engines. In Germany, Testberichte.de and CodeCheck follow ahead of idealo. In France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, CSS providers like Shoparize and Bigshopper follow directly behind Google.

• Access is regulated; the ranking is not. Google requires approval as a Vertical Search Service and product data via the CSS Center. Who ranks at the top is decided by Google based on relevance and quality.

• The EU Commission has not yet decided whether this is sufficient. On 20 October, Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera did not specify a date for an assessment in the European Parliament.

• Paid Shopping Ads remain unchanged. A proposal called Box-to-Box has been on the table for the paid space since June. A decision has not been reached. For merchants and agencies, this is the question with the greatest ramifications.

What has happened since mid-September

• 8 September 2026: In its Search Central documentation, Google publishes an overview of regional search differences, including the Aggregator Unit for comparison services and the Supplier Unit for direct merchants. Google tells Reuters that the change represents the greatest loss of quality in the 29-year history of its search engine.

• 8 September 2026: Twelve European comparison services, calling themselves the CSS Group and representing over 93,000 merchants by their own account, warn the Commission in an open letter against a model for the paid space that could push merchants back to Google Shopping.

• Mid-September 2026: The organic product carousels disappear from EEA search results within a few days. On 18 September, Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirms that the change is due to the Digital Markets Act.

• 18 September 2026: Google expands the Aggregator Unit and Supplier Unit to queries for local businesses.

• Around 21 September 2026: The 60-day deadline from the Commission’s decision of 23 July expires.

• 14 October 2026: SISTRIX publishes the first major analysis of the new box across 10.8 million search results from seven EU countries, updated on 22 October.

• 20 October 2026: During Question Time in the European Parliament, Teresa Ribera says the Commission is reviewing Google’s proposals and also intends to hear other market participants. She does not provide a date for a decision.

What has disappeared, and what the number actually measures

Verified: Productrise, a Dutch provider for tracking organic shopping results, monitors thousands of commercial queries daily. Before the transition, around 85 per cent of them triggered at least one organic product carousel. In mid-September, this proportion plummeted by 90 to 100 per cent in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden within a few days. In the UK, the US, and Australia, it remained unchanged. Semrush data shows the same picture for the affected countries.

It is important to understand what this figure measures: the proportion of search queries on which a carousel appears. It does not measure the traffic loss of individual merchants. That is lower, because organic reach in Merchant Center encompasses multiple surfaces, such as product knowledge panels, Google Images, or Lens. In the Merchant Centers we manage, the decline in organic impressions and clicks in the first days following the transition was in the region of just over 20 per cent.

A pitfall with before-and-after comparisons: On 24 August 2026, Google separated clicks from YouTube affiliate links from organic traffic in Merchant Center and recalculated figures retroactively to 1 July. Anyone comparing periods before and after the DMA transition should ensure that both windows are reported using the same logic. Otherwise, a reporting effect will be misread as a market loss.

The new comparison box in numbers

The most comprehensive measurement to date comes from SISTRIX. All smartphone search results freshly collected between 7 and 14 October 2026 were analysed: 10.8 million search results from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Austria is not included.

How often the box appears

The box exists only in the European Economic Area. In the UK, Switzerland, and the US, it does not appear once in the data. In Germany, it is present in 5.9 per cent of all search results; in the remaining countries, between 3.1 per cent in Sweden and 6.6 per cent in the Netherlands.

Search intent is crucial. In Germany, for searches with commercial intent, the box appears in 19.2 per cent of results, compared to 1.0 per cent for informational searches. Search volume, on the other hand, barely plays a role: from niche terms to keywords with over 10,000 monthly searches, the proportion ranges between 5.1 and 6.0 per cent. When the box appears, it is placed at the median as the fourth element on the results page, and in almost half of the cases among the top three.

Who is in the box

Up to three providers are directly visible. The top one is expanded with products and prices; others sit behind “More products”. In Germany, 51 different providers appear. Here is how the most significant are distributed:

Source: SISTRIX, google.de, smartphone, 7 to 14 October 2026. “N/A” means SISTRIX does not report a figure for 1st place for this provider.

In Germany, Google Shopping is featured somewhere in the list in 79.7 per cent of all boxes. In other countries, the gap is even wider: in Sweden, Google Shopping holds 1st place in 37.8 per cent of boxes and is in the top three in 88.9 per cent; in Italy, 32.2 and 79.0 per cent; in Spain, 31.4 and 78.6 per cent. In France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, it is not national price comparison sites that follow immediately behind, but Shoparize or Bigshopper. idealo appears in the top three in 25.8 per cent of boxes in Italy, 20.6 per cent in France, and 18.6 per cent in Spain.

What the numbers mean

1. The remedy points to Google most frequently

Verified: The very box with which Google responds to a DMA penalty for self-preferencing displays Google’s own comparison service most frequently, and most frequently right at the top.

Our assessment: This will be the core of the Commission’s evaluation and the complaints from comparison services. Formally, Google is one box among several. Whether a provider featured among the top three in nearly every second German box is treated equally cannot be answered from the data alone. It depends on whether Google evaluates its own service using the same criteria as everyone else. The Commission can investigate this; outsiders cannot.

2. Making the top three means making it to the top

Verified: According to SISTRIX, a provider that appears in the top three lands in 1st place in about one-third of cases. This applies to Google Shopping just as much as to Testberichte.de or idealo.

Our assessment: For the expanded slot itself, this shows no systematic favouritism. Google’s advantage occurs beforehand, on the question of how often a service makes it into the visible three in the first place. Breadth of inventory plays a role here: a service with offers for almost every product is relevant to almost every search.

3. Content beats pure price lists

Verified: In Germany, Testberichte.de and CodeCheck rank near the top significantly more often than idealo, billiger.de, or Geizhals. Testberichte.de aggregates product reviews, while CodeCheck provides product and ingredient information.

Our assessment: This aligns with Google’s own recommendations for the Aggregator Unit. There, Google mentions comprehensive descriptions and specifications, verified reviews, precise titles, high-quality images, and up-to-date pricing and availability. Product pages with genuine content apparently stand a better chance than pages that merely list offers.

4. CSS providers without major consumer brands also make it into the box

Verified: In four of the seven analysed countries, CSS providers like Shoparize and Bigshopper, whom merchants previously knew primarily as partners for Shopping Ads, sit directly behind Google. Shoparize states that clicks on its CSS product pages have roughly tripled across 21 EU markets since the rollout began. This figure comes from the provider itself and has not been independently verified.

Our assessment: The box is not a closed circle of major national price comparison engines. A CSS with its own well-maintained product pages can appear there. That is the rationale we already described in the first article for niche products and brand searches.

5. Small on average, large where it counts

5.9 per cent of all search results may sound low. However, for merchants, what matters is the proportion in searches with commercial intent, which stands at almost one-fifth, usually placed prominently near the top of the page. The box sits right where the product carousel previously funnelled high-intent users directly into online shops.

How to get into the box: what Google has documented

In the first article, we described the new space as an SEO space. With Google’s documentation, this can be refined: access is governed by approval and data; the ranking is determined by relevance and quality.

Verified, according to Google’s documentation on the Aggregator Unit:

• Participation is open only to businesses approved as a Vertical Search Service. This includes comparison services, online travel agencies, metasearch engines, and directories.

• For product searches, applications are submitted via the contact form for Comparison Shopping Services. Product pages are submitted via the CSS Center and approved there for display across Google.

• Only one Aggregator Unit appears per search. The highest-ranked provider is expanded by default; users can switch to other providers.

• A click within the box leads to the respective comparison service’s page, not directly to a merchant shop.

• Google describes the selection process as displaying what is most helpful for the query, pointing to its search quality guidelines. Google does not disclose specific ranking criteria.

In the CSS Center, a comparison service can also specify which of its own product pages should be prioritised. Which service ranks above other services, however, rests with Google.

What this means for merchants: An individual shop cannot apply directly for a row in the box. Its products appear there only via comparison services that feature them on their product pages, or via an in-house CSS. In both cases, the click goes to the comparison site first.

What remains for shops without a comparison service

Google has documented two spaces for direct providers. Both depend on the merchant’s own website, not on Merchant Center.

• Supplier Unit: A dedicated unit for direct providers that appears alongside the Aggregator Unit, but only when an Aggregator Unit is also displayed. It is populated from crawled content and, based on current market observations, does not show live prices.

• Structured data carousels (beta): For product searches in the EEA, a website can earn its own horizontal carousel. The requirement is an overview or category page with ItemList markup and Product markup for at least three products, each linking to detail pages on the same domain. Google additionally provides an interest form for this.

Our assessment: For most shops, the category carousel is the most underestimated lever. It carries no click costs, belongs entirely to the shop, and is technically manageable.

Outstanding legal and regulatory questions

The Commission is still reviewing

Verified: The deadline from the decision of 23 July has expired; there is no assessment from the Commission yet. In European Parliament Question Time on 20 October, Teresa Ribera stated that Google’s proposals are being reviewed and that feedback from other market participants will be gathered. She did not set a date. If the Commission deems the implementation insufficient, non-compliance penalties of up to 5 per cent of average daily worldwide turnover could follow.

The paid space is the real open question

Verified: The Commission noted back in July that Google had proposed and begun testing changes to how Shopping Ads are displayed. In June 2026, Google presented CSS providers with a proposal called Box-to-Box: comparison services would compete per query for the entire ad unit, and the winner would determine what appears inside. Whether this model will be rolled out is unconfirmed, and the Commission has not commented on it.

In its letter of 8 September, the CSS Group demanded that Google Shopping must bid in every box, including those of competitors. Their concern: if Google’s own box remains closed to the inventory of other comparison services, merchants would have little choice but to advertise directly via Google Shopping again.

Our assessment: For merchants and agencies, significantly more hinges on this question than on the organic box. The paid space is currently the only path leading from product search into the shop without intermediate stops. How it is restructured will determine what role an in-house CSS plays in the future. We do not expect changes to this before the peak holiday trading period. This is not verified.

Parallel proceedings in London

Verified: Kelkoo and Ciao are suing for damages before the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal over the self-preferencing of Google Shopping. Their argument: today’s shopping box remains Google’s own comparison service, even if other services appear inside it. Competing services should instead be able to compete for the entire box. Foundem ended its parallel lawsuit via a settlement. When the tribunal will decide remains open.

Who wins, who loses

Our assessment based on the data so far:

• Losers: Shops that derived a large share of their traffic from free product listings, especially smaller merchants without an advertising budget. They have lost the direct, free route from product search to their shop.

• Winners: Google Shopping as the most frequent provider in the new box. Comparison and review sites with content-rich product pages. CSS providers with their own, well-maintained product pages.

• Under pressure: The paid space. The demand previously met in part via free listings still exists. We anticipate more competition in Shopping auctions and resulting upward pressure on CPCs, especially ahead of Black Friday. Robust data on this is not yet available.

What to do now

For shops

Measure accurately before making decisions. Compare organic clicks in Merchant Center by country, using timeframes collected under the same reporting logic. Review the Merchant listings report in Search Console alongside it. Impact varies considerably from account to account.

Make your category pages carousel-ready. ItemList and Product markup on category pages is the most direct path to your own free product space in the EEA. Check the implementation using the Search Console URL Inspection tool.

Keep product data and structured data consistent. Shopping Ads, Google’s own line in the box, and comparison services all rely on the same product data. Errors now carry costs across multiple surfaces simultaneously.

Do not quietly replace lost free traffic with ad spend. If your Shopping campaigns are spending more, check whether you are buying clicks you previously received for free, or whether incremental demand is genuinely arriving.

Do not hastily switch comparison services. Whether your products appear in the box depends on whether a comparison service includes them on its own product pages shown by Google. Simply linking your Merchant Center to a CSS does not achieve this automatically. An additional comparison service is a commercial decision about an extra channel and should be evaluated accordingly.

For agencies

Separate organic and paid in reporting. Dashboards that merge both into a single shopping metric have shown a slump since mid-September that looks like a campaign problem when it is not.

Monitor the box for your clients’ top queries. Which services appear there, and who is expanded? This is the foundation for any decision regarding additional comparison services.

Use dedicated CSS product pages where realistic. A CSS can approve its own product pages for display across Google via the CSS Center. This makes the most sense for niche ranges as well as brand and model searches, and only for products with at least two displayable offers, matched by GTIN, for instance. With Label Up, you can run your own branded CSS with such product pages.

Prepare for changes to the paid space. If Box-to-Box or a similar model arrives, the choice of CSS becomes a strategic matter. Setups with multiple CSS partners can then adapt more swiftly. We described how this works in the auction in our article on the Double CSS Strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are free Google Shopping listings in the EU gone for good? From standard Google Search in the EEA, organic product carousels have largely vanished, with measurements showing drops of 90 to 100 per cent. Whether Google will introduce a different, DMA-compliant format later remains open. Organic reach across other surfaces such as Google Images remains intact.

How often does the new comparison box appear? According to SISTRIX, in Germany it appears in 5.9 per cent of all search results and in 19.2 per cent of searches with commercial intent. In the other monitored EU countries, the proportion ranges between 3.1 and 6.6 per cent.

Who ranks at the top in the comparison box most frequently? Google Shopping. In Germany, it sits expanded in 1st place in 17.5 per cent of the boxes, followed by Testberichte.de, CodeCheck, and idealo.

Can I apply directly for the comparison box as a shop? No. The Aggregator Unit is open only to approved Vertical Search Services, meaning Comparison Shopping Services with their own product pages in the case of retail. Shops appear there via comparison services that feature their products, or via an in-house CSS.

What is the Supplier Unit? A dedicated unit for direct providers such as merchants and brands that appears alongside the comparison box. It is shown only when a comparison box is also displayed, and is fed by crawled website content.

Does the change affect Austria and Switzerland? Austria, yes, as it is part of the EEA. Switzerland, no: SISTRIX found not a single comparison box there, nor in the UK or the US.

Are Google Shopping Ads affected? Not so far. Paid Shopping Ads continue unchanged. However, the Commission challenges the paid space on the same grounds, and Google has already proposed a restructuring with Box-to-Box.

Has the EU Commission accepted the new box? No, an assessment is pending. Teresa Ribera gave no date for this on 20 October.

Is it worth switching to a major price comparison site now? Not simply as a reaction to the box. Price comparison portals like idealo populate their pages via their own merchant agreements, not via Merchant Center, and the click lands on their site first. That can be worthwhile, but it is a distinct commercial decision.

Methodology and Context

Where the figures come from. Data on the frequency and composition of the comparison box comes from SISTRIX (smartphone, 7 to 14 October 2026, 10.8 million search results from seven EU countries). Data on the disappearance of product carousels comes from Productrise. Statements from comparison services regarding their own click numbers are marked as such and have not been independently verified.

What we do not know. There is no comparable measurement for Austria yet. Desktop results may differ. How Google determines the ranking of providers in the box is not documented.

What constitutes assessment. Identified as such are the assessment of Google Shopping’s role in the box, expectations regarding the paid space and the timing of potential changes, as well as the classification of winners and losers. Everything else is supported by the sources cited below.

Sources

• SISTRIX: Google's EU Comparison Box: The Most Common Provider is Google Itself, 14 October 2026, updated 22 October 2026. sistrix.de

• Google Search Central: Aggregator unit in Google Search. developers.google.com

• Google Search Central: Supplier unit in Google Search. developers.google.com

• Google Search Central: Structured data carousels (beta). developers.google.com

• Google CSS Center Help: How to start showing your product pages across Google. support.google.com

• Productrise: Google’s product carousels are disappearing from search in the EEA. productrise.app

• Search Engine Roundtable: Google Search Drops Free Product Listings From European Economic Area, September 2026. seroundtable.com

• Search Engine Roundtable: Google Says EU DMA Changes Resulted In Largest Reduction In Search Quality, 8 September 2026. seroundtable.com

• European Commission: Press release IP/26/1670 of 23 July 2026. ec.europa.eu

• EU Perspectives: Google handed in its homework. Brussels has yet to mark it, 22 October 2026. euperspectives.eu

• PPC Land: Google shopping box would push 93,000 merchants back to Google, rivals warn, September 2026. ppc.land

• PPC Land: Explaining free listings (reporting change in Merchant Center on 24 August 2026). ppc.land

• Shoparize: The EU vs Google Shopping: the Digital Markets Act case explained, 24 September 2026. shoparize.com

• Courthouse News Service: Google’s shopping fix hits a snag in London damages trial, 27 July 2026. courthousenews.com

• Label Up: Google Shopping has not disappeared. The space now belongs to comparison services, 14 September 2026. labelup.io