A group of British publishers have filed an antitrust complaint with the EU against Google, alleging that its AI summaries in search results are disadvantaging their content.
The complaint originates from the Independent Publishers Alliance and concerns the summaries that appear when searching for information via Google. That summary often already provides an answer to the information you are looking for.
The organisation claims that the functionality harms publishers, including those focused on news, leading to reduced traffic, fewer readers, and ultimately lower revenue, according to a complaint seen by Reuters.
Google itself states that its search engine continues to generate traffic for publishers. “New AI experiences in Search allow people to ask even more questions, creating new, yet-to-be-discovered opportunities for content and businesses.”
According to the publishers, these types of summaries on Google mean that fewer people visit the sites where Google gets its information.
Google’s AI summaries have been around since May 2024. In August last year, it already introduced a change that better displayed links to sources. This will undoubtedly still generate traffic, but in practice, many users only read Google’s answer. The fact that Google obtains information for its answers from other sites, but does not compensate the sites for processing that information or direct sufficient traffic to them, has long been a thorn in the side of news companies.
According to Reuters, this is far from the first case against Google over AI summaries. Three other groups have filed similar complaints and are requesting interim measures from the UK Competition Authority. In the US, an education technology company has also reportedly filed a complaint, alleging that Google is reducing demand for original content.
