Google’s AI Overviews Spark Antitrust Complaint in EU

Independent publishers in the European Union are accusing **Google** of anti-competitive behavior related to its AI Overviews. The complaint alleges that **Google** is abusing its market dominance by using publisher content in its AI summaries without permission, hurting their revenue.

Publishers Allege “Irreparable Harm”

At the heart of the issue is **Google’s** AI Overviews, AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, potentially reducing traffic to original sources. The Independent Publishers Alliance, along with other groups, argues this is causing “serious irreparable harm,” by siphoning away both traffic and revenue.

The core argument is that users are less likely to click on publishers’ websites if **Google’s** AI Overviews provide sufficient information directly in the search results. This decline in traffic can significantly reduce advertising revenue and subscriber numbers for online publications, vital sources of income. For example, news publishers saw a 27% decline in referral traffic from **Google** after the rollout of AI Overviews (Nieman Lab, 2024).

How AI Overviews Function

AI Overviews aim to give users quick, synthesized answers by drawing data from many online sources. These overviews can range from paragraphs to lists or tables and include links to source websites.

When a user makes a search query, **Google’s** systems assess whether generative AI might be helpful in providing an answer. If it seems applicable, a modified version of the Gemini AI model is put to work. This system uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to fetch and analyze information from its web index, synthesizing it into a summary with links to allow users to explore further.

Complaint Filed with Regulators

The formal complaint has been lodged with both the European Commission and the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The publishers want “interim measures” to prevent **Google** from using the feature during the investigation.

The U.K.’s CMA confirmed it received the complaint, noting that AI Overviews fall within its ongoing work to designate **Google** with a “strategic market status.” This designation would give the CMA more power to regulate **Google’s** behavior.

Google Defends AI Overviews

**Google** has defended its AI Overviews. A company spokesperson stated that “New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered.”

**Google** maintains that it sends billions of clicks to websites daily and that traffic fluctuations can be due to many factors, and also claims that clicks from pages with AI Overviews are of “higher quality.”