ECIPE Webinar: Consumer Attitudes Toward Parasite SEO and Search Engine Responsibility

Search engines play a central role in how Europeans access information, compare products, and navigate online services. Yet growing concerns around so-called “parasite SEO” – third-party commercial content placed on reputable websites to benefit from their search authority – have triggered an important policy debate about quality, fairness, and responsibility in search rankings.

This webinar will present striking new survey evidence from Central and Eastern Europe exploring how consumers view the role of search engines in protecting them from low-quality, misleading, or opportunistic content. The findings suggest strong expectations for active quality curation, a clear preference for safety over strict neutrality, and scepticism toward regulatory approaches that may unintentionally prioritise publisher revenue models over user experience.

The discussion will examine what these insights mean for ongoing policy debates and for the future balance between consumer protection, platform responsibility, and competition in digital markets.

Guiding questions:

• What do consumer expectations tell us about the appropriate role of search engines in filtering and ranking content?
• How should European policymakers balance user protection, search quality, and fair treatment of publishers?
• Could regulatory interventions aimed at protecting certain business models undermine trust and the quality of online search results?