Google Removes Product Carousels in Europe: Organic Visibility in E-Commerce Is Changing
Google has started to largely remove organic product carousels from shopping-focused search results in the European Economic Area. The change, implemented as part of compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), is significantly altering the way e-commerce and retail companies display their products in organic search results.
Google and DMA Regulations Are Changing Search Results
The new structure covers Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein in addition to European Union countries. On September 8, the company published new documentation regarding regional changes to the search experience in Europe. The regulation is being implemented within the framework of DMA obligations aimed at making comparison services and third-party providers in Europe more visible in search results.
Google described the changes as the biggest decline in quality in the 29-year history of its search service. Meanwhile, in July 2026, the European Commission imposed a €460 million fine on the company in relation to search, on the grounds that it positioned its own shopping, hotel, transportation, and sports services more favorably than third-party services.
Product Carousels Decline by 90–100 Percent
According to data from Productrise, which tracks organic shopping visibility, product carousels in the commercial searches examined in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden declined by 90 to 100 percent within a few days. In markets outside the European Economic Area, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, no similar change was observed during the same period.
In place of the carousels, users are now shown new result sections featuring stores and price comparison platforms. The Google Shopping tab has also been removed from navigation in the relevant European search experiences, while paid Shopping ads continue to remain visible.
Organic Visibility in E-Commerce and Retail Is Being Reshaped
The change directly affects the visibility of free product listings provided through Merchant Center. Productrise founder Hugo Huijer stated that European online retailers had lost a significant amount of organic Shopping visibility within a short period, while also noting that category pages could once again become more important in traditional organic search.
The change in e-commerce traffic is taking place at a time when artificial intelligence-based search experiences are becoming increasingly widespread. While AI features such as AI Overviews are also transforming the position of organic results on search pages, Google continues to expand the use of artificial intelligence in shopping discovery and advertising products.