On March 7th, 2024, Google inexplicably downranked the Tuta Mail website in its search results. Although Tuta Mail is a leading encrypted email service provider, focused hotels and motels email list on security and privacy, our website was completely deranked for terms such as “secure email” and “encrypted email”. The search results for our website were limited exclusively to so-called “branded” search terms, i.e. search terms that included our brand name, such as Tuta, Tutanota or Tutamail. As a result, only people who already knew that Tuta existed could find our website via Google search; potential new customers could not find our encrypted email solution.
Faced with this massive issue with Google Search and Tuta’s website visibility dropping by 90% in Google search results, we tried to contact Google, both through official channels and on social media, but to no avail. So on April 24th, we filed a formal complaint with the EU to investigate whether Google’s actions in downgrading a direct competitor violate the newly enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA). We welcome the fact that the EU has already launched an investigation against Google, Apple, and Meta to determine whether these big tech companies are sufficiently complying with the DMA. Without being legal experts, what Google has been doing with our website, and what Apple is doing with its new App Store policy for app developers, seem like obvious examples of malicious compliance .
