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CNET
07-07-2025
- Business
- CNET
EU Slaps Google With Antitrust Complaint Over AI Overviews
A group of publishers has filed an EU antitrust complaint against Google over its use of AI Overviews, according to a report from Reuters last week. AI Overviews are AI-generated results trained on content across the internet that appears at the top of Google searches. The complaint comes from a group of independent publishers who want the EU to take some action against Google scraping and repackaging their content, according to a document seen by Reuters. "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 document reads in part. The complaint also said that publishers don't have the option to opt out of their material being used for training without also losing visibility in Search. "More than any other company, Google prioritizes sending traffic to the web, and we send billions of clicks to websites each day. New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google argues that AI Overviews send higher quality clicks to sites. These are users who spend more time on publications. Even then, it's hard to know if the potential gain from higher-quality clicks offsets the overall alleged traffic drop due to people getting AI-generated answers instantly in Search. Representatives for the Independent Publisher's Alliance and the EU antitrust division did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Publisher traffic across the internet is currently in freefall with some of the biggest sites across the internet seeing drops of 27-59%, according to estimates from Similarweb. Already, publishers are looking towards a "Google Zero" future in which sites build direct connections with readers and rely less on people stumbling upon sites through online search. Without the mass influx of clicks through search, many sites, including CNN and The Verge, are erecting paywalls, asking readers to subscribe to access content. At the same time, the publishing industry is pushing back hard, filing lawsuits against OpenAI, Microsoft and Perplexity over their use of copyrighted material to train AI models. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) AI companies are also pushing back in court, saying their use of publisher content amounts to "fair use." Courts, in some instances, are agreeing with Big Tech. It's unsurprising that publishers are being defensive of their content. Already, the publishing industry has seen a major effect on its business, leading to layoffs and closures. 2,900 local newspapers have closed in the US since 2005, according to a study from Northwestern University 2025 has also been a tough year to be a journalist, with layoffs hitting CNN, Vox, HuffPost and NBC.


Forbes
07-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Latest EU Antitrust Attack On Google Shows It's Not A Monopoly
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 09: The exterior of the new headquarters of Google is seen at 550 ... More Washington Street in Hudson Square on January 09, 2024 in New York City. Designed by COOKFOX Architects, the 1.3-million-square-foot project involved the restoration and expansion of the St. John's Terminal building along the Hudson River waterfront. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Google possesses no monopoly in search. Evidence supporting the previous claim can be found in the antitrust attack on Google by independent publishers within the European Union. Over the weekend it was reported that 'Google's controversial AI-generated summaries — which have been blamed for crushing the traffic of U.S. news sites — have drawn an antitrust complaint in the European Union from a group of independent publishers.' Their very case wrecks their case. See Google's AI-generated summaries. In contemplating what Google's AI generation produces for visitors to the search site, it's easy to see where Google's attackers slip up. All one needs to do is contemplate the fruits of Google searches before November 30, 2022. The date mentioned is important and relevant to the accusations. That's because it was on November 30, 2022 that OpenAI officially launched ChatGPT to the public. And in incredibly rapid fashion even within a technology space known for its viral qualities, internet search was changed forever. Crucially, the change in search existed as a threat to Google's popularity. And for obvious reasons. Though internet searches on Google formerly directed users to internet locales away from it, including that of publishers, ChatGPT's rollout provided users of the internet with an all-new way to find voluminous information (including summaries) without endless clicking. Which means Google had to adapt. Put another way, a failure of Google to adapt to the soaring popularity of ChatGPT, along with all manner of others (think Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, and surely many more on the way) to ChatGPT's successful alteration of user wants was existential for Google, as it is for any business that rests on its laurels. Thought of in terms of the attack on Google discussed within this opinion piece, what has independent publishers (among others) within the EU up in arms is evidence not of Google's monopoly power, but of a growing sector within the global economy (search) defined by enormous competition. Which, when you think about it, describes all sectors in which there are highly valued corporations. Specifically, it's the lofty valuation of corporations naively assumed to possess monopoly powers that implies feverish competition. Looked at through the prism of Google, its global popularity is all the evidence we need that it's not a monopoly now, and most certainly won't be one in the future. Corporations quite simply cannot achieve on the level that Google has without facing challenges to their primacy. Google has seen this not just from established giants (think Microsoft and Bing), but from former unknowns eager to achieve Google's much-coveted status as noun, verb, and adjective. Which explains the unexpected arrival of ChatGPT onto the search scene yet again. Of course, the incredibly fast adoption of ChatGPT from November 30, 2022 onward is the undoing of the latest harassment of Google from the proverbial Commanding Heights. The nature of a Google search today doesn't signal its monopolization of search, rather it signals an evolution of search born of intense, innovative and and well-funded competition. Google isn't a monopoly per the latest EU complaint, rather it's a competitor in an increasingly crowded space. The previous truth can be found in the very complaint brought by independent publishers.


The Verge
04-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
European publishers have beef with Google's AI Overviews.
European publishers have beef with Google's AI Overviews. A complaint filed by a group of independent publishers alleges that Google abuses its market power by not allowing them to withhold their content from AI Overviews without losing the ability to appear in Search results — a choice that Google believes may impact AI monetisation.