GetYourGuide Shows European Commission How Google Should Fix Its Travel Ads

GetYourGuide has sent new proposed advertising modules to the European Commission as an alternative to Google Travel Ads, which the experiences platform argues doesn't comply with the Digital Markets Act.

In essence, GetYourGuide wants to preclude Google from dominating the sector with its own vertical search service. GetYourGuide also wants to bar Google from jamming a variety of advertisers' offerings into one Google Travel Ad, where GetYourGuide says the platforms have limited control over the content and how they compete.

The following is an exclusive look at GetYourGuide's proposed Google advertising changes for the tours and activities sector, and we'll show its mockups further below. However's, first here's some background on the issue.

The backdrop to the dispute is that when the Digital Markets Act went into effect last March, the European Commission opened a non-compliance probe into whether Google is giving greater preference to its own its own vertical search service in hotels, for example, over that of rival services. Similar dynamics may be in play for the experiences sector.

"The Digital Markets Act is clear that this must not be the default search experience," Björn Borrmann, GetYourGuide's director of policy, told Skift.

Google didn't change its Travel Ads module when the Digital Markets Act went into effect, and GetYourGuide contends it doesn't conform to the law's requirements.

Borrmann argues that Google is violating the competition act by grouping providers into a single ad