Once again, Google finds itself in a legal dispute. The tech company is being sued by Penske Media, which owns prominent publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety. The lawsuit alleges that Google has been using their journalistic content without permission to generate AI-created summaries, which is diverting traffic away from their websites.
Filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C., this is the first case of a major US publisher suing Google over its 'AI Overviews' feature. According to Reuters, news organizations argue that these AI summaries, appearing at the top of search results, are reducing their advertising and subscription revenue by decreasing the number of visitors to their sites.
What Penska Media lawsuit alleges
Penske Media, reportedly attracting 120 million online visitors each month, alleges that Google effectively forces publishers to consent to the use of their content in AI-generated summaries. The lawsuit claims that Google exploits its dominant position in the search market to achieve this, a dominance that a federal court determined last year to account for nearly 90% of the US market share.
The lawsuit filed by the company alleges that AI Overviews are now present in about 20% of Google searches, which would have previously directed users to its websites. This situation, according to the company, has resulted in a decrease in search traffic and a reduction of over one-third in its affiliate revenue since the end of 2024.
Google says it will defend against meritless claims
According to Reuters, Google representative Jose Castaneda defended the AI summaries, stating they enhance user experience and direct traffic to a broader range of websites.
"With AI Overviews, people find Search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered," Castaneda said, adding, "We will defend against these meritless claims."
The legal action follows a unique antitrust win for Google, which was not required to divest its Chrome browser. In a related case, Chegg, an online education firm, initiated a lawsuit in February, claiming that Google's AI summaries are harming competition and reducing the need for original content.
