Google is facing a lawsuit by Rolling Stone
In a significant legal move, Penske Media, the publisher behind renowned outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, has filed a lawsuit against Google in a federal court in Washington. The lawsuit, which was announced in May 2024, targets Google's AI-generated Overviews feature.
The lawsuit alleges that Google's practice of using publishers' journalistic content without permission for its AI Overviews is unauthorised and negatively impacts traffic to the publishers' websites. Penske Media argues that Google only includes publishers' websites in its search results if it can utilise their articles for AI Overviews.
This is the first time a major U.S. publisher has taken Google or its parent company Alphabet to court over AI Overviews. The lawsuit comes as resistance to Google's AI Overviews is growing, not just in the U.S., but also in Europe. The Independent Publishers Alliance, a group of London-based publishers, has filed a complaint with the EU regarding Google's AI summaries.
Google's AI Overviews feature, which provides a summary of various sources to answer many search queries, was launched in the U.S. in May 2024 and in Germany in March 2025. The company claims that the feature offers a better user experience and directs traffic to a wider variety of websites. However, studies show that Google's AI Overviews come at the expense of traffic sent to external websites, including those of publishers.
Google will defend against what it calls 'unfounded claims' regarding its AI Overviews. The company argues that without this leverage, it would have to pay publishers for the right to republish their works or use them to train its AI systems. Google's dominance in search allows it to enforce such conditions, Penske Media argues.
The lawsuit does not specify the monetary damages sought by Penske Media. However, it is clear that this is a significant legal challenge to Google's practices in using publishers' content for AI purposes. The EU is now facing complaints from both Penske Media in the U.S. and the Independent Publishers Alliance in Europe regarding Google's AI Overviews.
As the case unfolds, it will be interesting to see how Google responds and whether other publishers will follow Penske Media's lead in challenging Google's AI Overviews.
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