Alphabet’s Google has been hit by an EU antitrust criticism over its AI Overviews from a bunch of unbiased publishers, which has additionally requested for an interim measure to forestall allegedly irreparable hurt to them, in response to a doc seen by Reuters.
Google’s AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that seem above conventional hyperlinks to related webpages and are proven to customers in additional than 100 nations. It started including ads to AI Overviews final Might.
The corporate is making its greatest wager by integrating AI into search however the transfer has sparked issues from some content material suppliers reminiscent of publishers.
The Unbiased Publishers Alliance doc, dated June 30, units out a criticism to the European Fee and alleges that Google abuses its market energy in on-line search.
“Google’s core search engine service is misusing internet content material for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have brought on, and proceed to trigger, vital hurt to publishers, together with information publishers within the type of site visitors, readership and income loss,” the doc stated.
It stated Google positions its AI Overviews on the prime of its normal search engine outcomes web page to show its personal summaries that are generated utilizing writer materials and it alleges that Google’s positioning disadvantages publishers’ unique content material.
“Publishers utilizing Google Search would not have the choice to decide out from their materials being ingested for Google’s AI giant language mannequin coaching and/or from being crawled for summaries, with out dropping their capacity to look in Google’s normal search outcomes web page,” the criticism stated.
The Fee declined to remark.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority confirmed receipt of the criticism.
Google stated it sends billions of clicks to web sites every day.
“New AI experiences in Search allow folks to ask much more questions, which creates new alternatives for content material and companies to be found,” a Google spokesperson stated.
The Unbiased Publishers Alliance’s web site says it’s a nonprofit neighborhood advocating for unbiased publishers, which it doesn’t identify.
The Motion for an Open Internet, whose members embrace digital advertisers and publishers, and British non-profit Foxglove Authorized Group Curiosity Firm, which says it advocates for equity within the tech world, are additionally signatories to the criticism.
They stated an interim measure was essential to forestall severe irreparable hurt to competitors and to make sure entry to information.
Google stated quite a few claims about site visitors from search are sometimes based mostly on extremely incomplete and skewed knowledge.
“The fact is that websites can acquire and lose site visitors for a wide range of causes, together with seasonal demand, pursuits of customers, and common algorithmic updates to Search,” the Google spokesperson stated.
Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling stated journalists and publishers face a dire state of affairs.
“Unbiased information faces an existential risk: Google’s AI Overviews,” she informed Reuters.
“That is why with this criticism, Foxglove and our companions are urging the European Fee, together with different regulators all over the world, to take a stand and permit unbiased journalism to decide out,” Curling stated.
The three teams have filed an identical criticism and a request for an interim measure to the UK competitors authority.
The complaints echoed a US lawsuit by a U.S. edtech firm which stated Google’s AI Overviews is eroding demand for unique content material and undermining publishers’ capacity to compete which have resulted in a drop in guests and subscribers.
© Thomson Reuters 2025