On Monday 7 December, the European Commission published guidelines to help online platforms be more transparent about their ranking parameters, in line with EU Regulation 2019/1150 on the relationship between platforms and business users (P2B).
“Since businesses increasingly depend on digital solutions to reach consumers, their position in online search results can mean make it or break it. These guidelines will increase ranking transparency and allow businesses to compete fairly online in the EU Single Market”, commented European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
The P2B Regulation, applicable throughout Europe since 12 July 2020, obliges marketplaces and search engines to indicate the main parameters they use to rank goods and services on their sites, in order to help sellers understand how to optimise their presence (Article 5). It is intended to assist vendors while preventing manipulation of the ranking system. The Regulation provides for the publication by the Commission of non-binding guidelines to help platforms meet their obligations.
To meet this requirement, the European Commission is therefore publishing today a document setting out general and specific principles as well as two annexes giving examples of ranking parameters and direct and indirect remuneration.
The main document states, for example, that “what is described as the main parameters should be what is really most important in determining the ranking”.
To determine which set of parameters is “decisive”, providers could consider what motivated the design of the algorithm in the first place (e.g., whether it should meet the requirement to ensure that consumers find local, inexpensive, or high-quality goods or services, etc.). Similarly, the provider could be considering what would most satisfy consumers of the services. When a supplier identifies a large number of ranking parameters, they may wish to consider dividing them into several broad categories and then examine what the sub-categories are.
In terms of specific principles, the document gives examples of customisation, user search behaviour, user history, default settings, etc.
“Transparency is the European way to go, and we are putting the final touch to rules for all digital services to cooperate with regulators and for the biggest platforms to provide more information on the way their algorithms work”, commented Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, referring to the proposals on digital services and digital markets to be presented on 15 December.
Link to the document: https://bit.ly/36PjfpC (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)