Publishers receive setback in Google AI Overviews lawsuit

Ed-tech company Chegg filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google last year over AI Overviews and how the feature was affecting website traffic and affiliate revenues. Publisher Penske Media Corporation, known for publications like Billboard, Variety, and Rolling Stone, later filed its own lawsuit against the search giant. A federal judge has now delivered a major setback to both parties.

While siding with Google, US District Judge Amit Mehta noted in the ruling that the claims in the lawsuits weren’t based on an agreement with the search giant, but an “expectation” (via Reuters).

Chegg and Penske Media’s lawsuits alleged they lost revenue due to a dip in traffic following the implementation of AI Overviews. They argued that Google effectively locked publishers into AI Overviews if they wanted their content indexed in Search.

“Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search ​traffic if they make their content available for free,” Mehta noted in the ruling. “But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works,” the judge added.

As The Information points out, this leaves publishers with few options beyond striking licensing deals with Google. Under such a deal, Google would pay publishers to display their content in AI search responses.

The judge noted that the court is not “unsympathetic to the situation publishers now find themselves in,” but that this may be beyond the purview of antitrust laws and better suited for Congress or regulators.

This isn’t the first setback for publishers this year, as lawsuits brought against Google by Helena World Chronicle and Emmerich Newspapers also saw a similar fate in federal court in March.