European publishers file complaint over Google’s – Business News
Google’s controversial AI-generated summaries — which have been blamed for crushing the site visitors of US information websites — have drawn an antitrust complaint within the European Union from a group of unbiased publishers.
The complaint, dated June 30 and submitted by the Independent Publishers Alliance, accuses the Sundar Pichai-led Big Tech giant of abusing its dominant place in online search by selling its own AI-generated summaries over hyperlinks to unique content material.
The submitting by the Independent Publishers Alliance requests that the European Commission impose interim measures to forestall what it describes as “irreparable harm” to publishers.
Google’s artificial intelligence instruments are being blamed for harming publishers’ companies. Koshiro Okay – stock.adobe.com
“Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss,” the complaint alleges.
The court docket motion comes as damning information revealed that the AI Overviews have resulted in 37 of the highest 50 US information domains struggling year-over-year site visitors declines since its launch in May 2024, in keeping with digital intelligence firm ComparableWeb.
A report by ComparableWeb additionally discovered that the AI summaries have led to a vital increase within the frequency of “zero clicks” to look queries.
The proportion of web searches associated to information that finish with out a click on to a information web site jumped to 69% in May 2025 from 56% for a similar month final 12 months, ComparableWeb discovered.
A spokesperson for the Competition and Markets Authority, the EU’s antitrust company, confirmed to The Post that it acquired the complaint.
“Last week, we proposed to designate Google with strategic market status in search and search advertising. If designated, this would allow us to introduce targeted measured to address specific aspects of how Google operates search services in the UK,” the rep stated.
AI Overviews are summaries generated utilizing Google’s artificial intelligence fashions and are displayed on the high of common search outcomes. The characteristic is on the market in more than 100 nations. Google started incorporating ads into AI Overviews this previous May.
The publishers allege that Google’s follow of displaying its own summaries above hyperlinks disadvantages unique content material and is made worse by the shortage of control publishers have over how their materials is used.
A bunch of unbiased publishers within the European Union filed an antitrust complaint towards Google over its AI Overviews technology. dts News Agency Germany/Shutterstock
“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,” the complaint alleges.
The Movement for an Open Web, whose members embody digital advertisers and publishers, and British nonprofit Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company are additionally signatories to the complaint.
The three organizations are looking for regulatory intervention to handle what they are saying is an pressing risk to competitors and entry to information.
Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling stated the implications of AI Overviews for information publishers are extreme.
“Independent news faces an existential threat: Google’s AI Overviews,” Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling stated.
“That’s why with this complaint, Foxglove and our partners are urging the European Commission, along with other regulators around the world, to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out.”
A Google spokesperson defended the AI Overviews characteristic and disputed the characterization of its impression on publishers.
The complaint submitted by the Independent Publishers Alliance accuses Google of abusing its dominant place in online search by selling its own AI-generated summaries over hyperlinks to unique content material. Google
“New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered,” the spokesperson informed Reuters.
Google added that the company sends billions of clicks to web sites every day and that site visitors fluctuations might be influenced by many elements.
“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 spokesperson stated.
The claims within the EU complaint echo a related argument made in a lawsuit filed within the United States by an schooling technology company, which alleges that Google’s AI Overviews are eroding demand for unique content material and damaging the aggressive means of publishers, leading to declines in each site visitors and subscriptions.
Google has confronted a number of antitrust investigations on either side of the Atlantic Ocean lately.
The tech giant is interesting a $4.7 billion high-quality imposed by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its dominance with the Android working system. Last month, an advisor to the EU’s high court docket beneficial the high-quality be upheld.
The European Commission can be persevering with investigations into Google’s conduct in digital promoting and search, with potential for additional regulatory motion.
In the United States, a federal decide ruled in August 2024 that Google violated antitrust law by sustaining monopolies on the whole search and search promoting, citing unique offers comparable to these with Apple.
A verdict after a trial on the treatment section — which may embody breaking up Google — is predicted subsequent month.
In a separate ruling in April 2025, one other decide discovered Google had illegally monopolized online promoting markets by controlling each the buy and sell sides of the advert exchange.
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