Independent publishers claim that Google search's 'AI summary' violates EU antitrust law
In Google Search, an AI-
Exclusive: Google's AI Overviews hit by EU antitrust complaint from independent publishers | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/googles-ai-overviews-hit-by-eu-antitrust-complaint-independent-publishers-2025-07-04/
Google faces EU antitrust complaint over AI Overviews | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/05/google-faces-eu-antitrust-complaint-over-ai-overviews/
According to Reuters, in a letter dated June 30, 2025, the Independent Publishers Alliance , a group of independent European publishers, filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging that 'Google is abusing its market power in online search. Google's misuse of web content for its 'AI-generated summaries' continues to cause significant harm to publishers in the form of lost traffic, readership and revenue.'
The Independent Publishers Alliance argued that the display of 'AI-generated summaries' at the top of Google search results penalizes publishers' original content, arguing that 'publishers do not have the option to opt out of having their content included in Google's large-scale language model training or crawled for summarization after appearing in Google search results.'
The Independent Publishers Alliance's complaint was also supported by the Open Web Movement, whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, and the Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, a British non-profit organization that advocates for fairness in the tech industry.
Rosa Carling, co-executive director of Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, said: 'Journalists and publishers are facing a dire situation and independent news is facing an existential threat from Google's AI summaries. That's why we and our partners are using this complaint as a catalyst to urge the European Commission and regulators around the world to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out.'
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has confirmed it had received the complaint from the Independent Publishers Alliance, but the European Commission has declined to comment.
A Google spokesperson told Reuters, 'Our new AI experiences in search encourage people to ask more questions and create new opportunities for people to discover content and businesses. We also argue that claims about web traffic are often based on incomplete data, and sites can see more or less traffic for a variety of reasons.'
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