A coalition of independent publishers has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Google, alleging its AI Overviews feature misuses publisher content and harms competition. The complaint, seen by Reuters, also calls for interim measures to prevent what it describes as “irreparable harm” to news outlets and content creators.
Launched in May, Google’s AI Overviews provide AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results in more than 100 countries. According to the complaint, Google gives these summaries priority placement, pulling content from publishers without offering an option to opt out — unless those publishers also forfeit inclusion in general search results.
The complaint, submitted by the Independent Publishers Alliance, claims the system causes significant damage to traffic, readership, and revenue. It accuses Google of abusing its dominance in online search by using publisher content to train its large language models and power AI Overviews, effectively undercutting the visibility of original reporting.
“Independent news faces an existential threat: Google’s AI Overviews,” Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove Legal, one of the organizations backing the complaint, told Reuters. “We’re urging the European Commission and other regulators to take a stand and allow journalism to opt out.”
Google defended the feature, saying it helps users ask broader questions and discover new content, and emphasized that its search engine sends billions of clicks to websites daily. “Sites can gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons,” a spokesperson said, adding that claims about traffic loss are often based on incomplete data.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority confirmed receipt of a similar complaint. The European Commission has declined to comment.
The filing echoes recent lawsuits in the U.S. alleging that AI Overviews erode demand for original content and threaten publisher viability.
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