Google's EEA product grid is gone; Google Shopping leads the new box
What this answers
- What happened to Google's product grid in Europe?
- On Sept. 16, 2026, it stopped appearing in the 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks, replaced same-day by a Comparison Sites section, following a €460 million EU fine over Google favoring its own shopping results; Google Shopping appeared in the new section 16 to 35 times as often as the next-largest comparison service, per BrightEdge.
- Which comparison shopping service should EEA retailers pick in Merchant Center?
- BrightEdge hasn't tested merchant-level outcomes, but found Google Shopping appearing far more often than rivals in the new section, so it recommends selecting Google as the CSS unless a retailer is required to use another.
Google’s free product grid stopped appearing across all 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks on Sept. 16, 2026, replaced same-day by a Comparison Sites section, per a BrightEdge analysis of daily search results from Sept. 1 to Oct. 13. Google Shopping appeared in the new section 16 to 35 times as often as the next-largest comparison service across Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and landed in the top four results 71% of the time. The switch follows the European Commission’s €460 million DMA fine against Google in July for favoring its own shopping results; keyword coverage of the new section matched the old grid’s baseline by Sept. 30, though Finland and Norway still ran below baseline on Oct. 13.
Why it matters: It's the first independent measurement of what the EU's Digital Markets Act shopping ruling actually changed for retailers, and it shows Google's own service still dominating the box meant to open space for rivals.
The record: GoogleBrightEdge
Via BrightEdge ↗ · BrightEdge Blog ↗
Posted to the wire October 23, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.