Google Hit With EU Antitrust Investigation Over AI Summaries

The European Union has launched an antitrust investigation into whether Google is violating competition rules with AI-generated summaries in its search results.

In a statement on Tuesday, the European Commission said it would examine whether Google is unfairly rehashing the content of web publishers and YouTube creators in AI-generated search results. Google said the investigation risked “stifling innovation.”

“The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search,” the European Commission said. “Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it.”

On YouTube, the European Commission is concerned that Google is training its AI on videos “without appropriate compensation to creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.”

Google’s AI summaries are a hot-button topic in journalism, with publishers experiencing declines in traffic as users read AI summaries over clicking on links. Ad-supported websites rely on traffic to generate revenue.

In September, Penske Media Corporation (PMC), Deadline’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against Google alleging that the search giant’s AI summaries use its journalism without consent, reducing traffic to its sites. PMC is thought to be the first major U.S. publisher to take action against Google, which described the claims as “meritless.”

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition, said: “AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies.

“This is why we are investigating whether Google may have imposed unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, while placing rival AI models developers at a disadvantage, in breach of EU competition rules.”

A Google spokesperson said: “This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever. Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era.”