AI News Monitor

Google has been hit with an antitrust complaint in the European Union over its artificial intelligence-generated search summaries, which publishers say are devastating their businesses by diverting traffic from news websites.

The complaint, filed by the Independent Publishers Alliance (IPA) and backed by advocacy groups, accuses the tech giant of abusing its dominance in online search to prioritize its own AI-generated content over original news sources. The filing, submitted to the European Commission on June 30, calls for emergency measures to halt what it describes as “irreparable harm” to the publishing industry.

At issue is Google’s “AI Overviews” feature, which uses generative AI to produce summaries at the top of search results. Since its rollout in May 2024, publishers say the tool has slashed traffic to their sites, with data from digital intelligence firm SimilarWeb showing that 37 of the top 50 U.S. news domains saw year-over-year declines in visits.

The complaint alleges that Google’s summaries—often pulling directly from publishers’ content—deprive news organizations of both readership and revenue. According to SimilarWeb, the percentage of news-related searches that ended without a click to a publisher’s site surged to 69% in May 2025, up from 56% a year earlier.

“Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for its AI Overviews, causing significant harm to publishers in the form of traffic, readership, and revenue loss,” the complaint states.

The IPA, along with the Movement for an Open Web and the British nonprofit Foxglove, argues that publishers cannot opt out of having their content used in AI summaries without being penalized in search rankings.

“AI Overviews are theft from the publishing industry,” said Tim Cowen, co-founder of the Movement for an Open Web. “They steal publishers’ content and then use that to steal their traffic before it reaches their site. That’s unfair and a clear breach of copyright principles.”

Google, however, disputes the claims. A company spokesperson said in a statement that AI Overviews create “new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered,” adding that Google sends billions of clicks to websites daily and that traffic fluctuations stem from multiple factors, including user interest and algorithm updates.

The complaint marks the latest regulatory challenge for Google, which has faced mounting antitrust scrutiny in both Europe and the U.S. The European Commission is already investigating the company’s practices in digital advertising and search, while in the U.S., a federal judge ruled last year that Google illegally maintained monopolies in search and search advertising. A verdict on potential remedies—which could include breaking up the company—is expected next month.

Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove, warned that without intervention, independent journalism faces an existential threat. “Google’s AI Overviews are cannibalizing the very ecosystem that feeds them,” she said. “Regulators must act before it’s too late.”

The European Commission confirmed receipt of the complaint but declined to comment further.