Google Hit With EU Antitrust Lawsuit Over AI Overviews

A coalition of independent publishers from the European Union (EU) and the UK has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, arguing that its new AI overviews could cause “irreparable harm,” as initially reported by Reuters. It also requested that interim measures be taken while the case is pending in court.

The coalition, comprising the groups Foxglove, the Independent Publishers Alliance, and the Movement for an Open Web (MOW), represents independent publishers across both blocs.

“Publishers using Google Search do not have the option to opt out from their material being ingested for Google’s AI large language model training and/or from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google’s general search results page,” reads the complaint filed with the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU.

The coalition filed a similar complaint to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

According to Foxglove, Google’s auto-generated AI Overview (AIO) scrapes websites “that a user would previously have been served in response to their search.” The non-profit organisation also mentions that links to news articles are pushed “below the fold” (the part of the page that requires scrolling to see), which significantly reduces traffic and visibility.

“In simple terms: Google is stealing the work of professional reporters – and making it worse – without compensating them, nor their publishers. One of the richest and most powerful companies in the world […] is taking the money out of the pockets of journalists that they need to survive,” reads a July 4 publication from Foxglove.

The complaint happens as Google continues its rollout of AI features. Recently, the tech giant announced that it would launch an exclusively AI-powered mode in its search engine.

In a statement to Reuters, a Google spokesperson claimed that complaints about traffic are often misattributed to the company: “The reality is that sites can gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons, including seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates to Search.”

The complaint echoes similar cases worldwide. In March, Turkish independent news publishers signed an open letter to Google accusing the tech giant of endangering independent Turkish media through its policies. One of the outlets that penned the letter was forced to shut down operations before the letter could be published.