Between September 17 and 18, 2026, Google removed free product listings and "Popular products" carousels from search results across the European Economic Area (EEA). If you sell online and used to get visits from those spots without paying for ads, you have lost a channel. Here is what happened and what is worth doing.
What happened to Google's product listings
According to Search Engine Roundtable and PPC Land, in about 48 hours free product listings and "Popular products" carousels almost disappeared from Google results in the EEA. Hugo Huijer, of Productrise, measured drops between 90 and 100 percent in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. Ginny Marvin, Google's Ads Liaison, confirmed that the removal comes from the rules of the Digital Markets Act, the European regulation on digital markets. According to PPC Land, the change had not been announced in advance.
What free product listings are
When you search for a product on Google, some searches show boxes with a photo, a price and the store name. Part of them is advertising. Another part appeared for free, if the store uploaded its catalog to Merchant Center, the Google tool where stores enter their products. These are the free listings that have disappeared in the EEA.
What changes for online sellers
According to Adriaan Dekker, quoted by Search Engine Roundtable, the freed-up space goes to price comparison services. According to PPC Land, stores lost a free traffic channel with no transition period. Three options remain: paid Shopping ads, which according to Numinix are still available, a comparison service that keeps a share of your sales, or accepting the loss of those visits.
Italy is part of the EEA. The drops cited, however, concern five countries and Italy is not among them, so for your store the number that matters is your own, not the European average.
How to tell whether your store was hit
Open your site statistics and filter the visits coming from Google to your product pages. Compare the three weeks before September 17 with the three weeks after. If the drop is sharp and matches those dates, you probably depended on the free listings. If visits are stable, your traffic comes from elsewhere, for example regular search or people who already know your store. Either way you have concrete information to decide on, instead of a vague worry.
What to do now
- Look at your numbers. In your site statistics (Google Analytics or similar tools) compare visits from Google to products before and after September 17.
- Do not keep everything on a single channel. A custom website with complete product pages (clear title, photos, price, availability) works for you even when a platform changes its rules.
- Try Shopping ads with a small budget and a precise goal, for example how many orders arrive in two weeks. Measure before spending more.
- Read the comparison services' terms before signing up, in particular the share they keep on every sale.
- Take care of the landing page. Someone who clicks an ad must immediately find the product and the buy button. A landing page built for a single goal helps you avoid wasting the clicks you pay for.
What to avoid
Avoid buying ads at random without measuring results. Avoid rebuilding your whole site in a hurry. Be wary of anyone promising to bring you back into those spots: the removal comes from a European rule and affects all stores, whatever the quality of your catalog.
When this news matters little to you
If you only sell in a physical store, by appointment or through word of mouth, this matters little to you. If you have an online store but almost all your visits come from people who already type its name, you probably have less to fear, because those people were not coming through the carousels.
Hypothetical example: an online ceramics shop sees its Google visits fall after September 17. Before spending on advertising, it checks where this month's orders came from. If most come from the newsletter and word of mouth, a small ad test is enough. If almost all come from Google, it makes more sense to build other channels right away.
To understand how online shopping is changing with AI agents, also read Shopify opens checkout to AI agents: what it means for sellers.
Write to us if you want an opinion on your store
If you have an online store and want to reduce your dependence on a single channel, write to info@sarabi.cloud: tell us in two lines what you sell, where your customers come from today and how far along your site is.
Sources: Search Engine Roundtable, PPC Land, Numinix.
Have a similar case or a doubt? Write to us at info@sarabi.cloud.