A coalition of independent publishers has lodged a formal antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Google, claiming its AI feature is infringing on their market rights and causing significant traffic and revenue losses.
Short Summary:
- The Independent Publishers Alliance filed a complaint alleging Google’s AI Overviews misuse their content.
- Publishers report substantial traffic declines and urge regulators to allow them to opt out.
- Google defends its AI features, stating they create new opportunities for content discovery.
On June 30, 2025, an array of independent publishers, spearheaded by the Independent Publishers Alliance, submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission, escalating antitrust concerns regarding Google’s AI Overviews feature. This complaint is being taken seriously as it underscores the ongoing debates about the balance between AI innovation and the rights of content creators. The AI Overviews, which generate summaries of web content that appear prominently at the top of search results, are alleged to misappropriate original publisher material, leading to serious economic repercussions for publishers worldwide.
The Independent Publishers Alliance articulates in its complaint that Google’s practices are causing “significant harm” to independent publishers by dramatically reducing their online traffic and revenue. According to the report, many publishers observed an alarming decline in web traffic—some reporting losses exceeding 34.5%—since the implementation of AI Overviews.
As described in the document reviewed by Reuters, Google is accused of abusing its substantial market power in online search. The complaint asserts that Google’s core search platform is utilizing their content for AI Overviews without the option for publishers to opt out, unless they risk losing visibility in Google’s general search results entirely. This creates a dire predicament for publishers who depend on search traffic for their viability.
“Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss,” the document states.
The specific concern raised by the independent publishers is that while AI-generated summaries provide concise answers to users, they create a disincentive for users to click through to the publisher’s original content. As a result, the demand for original journalism is eroded, leading to fierce financial challenges. Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, another signatory to the complaint, highlights this existential threat facing independent journalism.
“Independent news faces an existential threat: Google’s AI Overviews,” noted Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove. “That’s why with this complaint, Foxglove and our partners are urging the European Commission, along with other regulators around the world, to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out.”
The complaint’s urgency is marked by requests for interim measures, necessary to renew fair competition conditions and preserve access to news media. This aligns with similar legal actions taken in the U.S., where an edtech firm, Chegg, has also challenged Google, emphasizing how AI Overviews diminish the need for original content.
Google’s defense focuses on the benefits its AI features purportedly deliver to users and content providers alike. A spokesperson from Google stated that the new AI experiences in search provide fresh opportunities for content discovery:
“New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered.” The spokesperson maintained that billions of clicks are still directed to external websites daily via the search platform.
Nevertheless, the traffic dip reported by independent publishers has raised skepticism about Google’s claims. The discrepancy between Google’s assertions and the publishers’ experiences has been corroborated by various studies. Research conducted by Ahrefs analyzed a considerable dataset of keywords, revealing stark declines in organic clicks attributable to the presence of AI Overviews.
Further supporting this viewpoint, Tracy McDonald published findings analyzing search behavior, showing that users who engaged with AI Overviews tended to navigate to alternative sources—such as social media or other content platforms—rather than traditional publisher sites.
“Publishers using Google Search do not have the option to opt out from their material being ingested for Google’s AI large language model training and/or from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google’s general search results page,” stated the complaint.
Industry analysts predict that the ramifications of this complaint could lead to further scrutiny on Google’s practices. With regulators examining Google’s role as a ‘gatekeeper’ in the digital marketplace, the European Commission’s attention on potential violations of the Digital Markets Act could have profound implications for how AI-integrated search evolves.
The mounting legal challenges also coincide with observable trends in the marketplace dynamics. As noted by industry professionals, such as Kevin Indig, there could be a transformative shift where platforms like ChatGPT pose significant competition to Google’s longstanding search dominance, particularly for academic and research queries.
As the situation develops, both the European Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority are expected to provide guidance regarding the processing of this complaint. The urgency of the request for interim measures lends a degree of weight, suggesting that the complainants believe they may face irreversible damage without immediate intervention.
Moreover, Google’s future investments in AI infrastructure will also play a critical role in shaping the search ecosystem. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, has previously mentioned plans to significantly allocate funds towards AI advancements in the coming years, which indicates the company’s commitment to spearheading AI integration into its services despite the mounting backlash.
The Independent Publishers Alliance, along with its allies in this complaint, is advocating for a fairer system in which content providers retain control over their material. As AI continues to evolve, the debate surrounding the ethical use of published content is likely to intensify, raising essential questions about the future of journalism in an increasingly digital age.
With AI transforming not just how we access information but how it is distributed, independent publishers are at a crucial juncture. Their capacity to adapt and thrive in this shifting landscape will be determined by the actions of regulatory bodies and Google’s future policies regarding its AI features.
The outcome of this complaint may very well forge a new path for the interaction between AI technologies and content creators—a reflection of the ongoing tug-of-war between innovation and the preservation of independent journalism. As the digital ecosystem grows increasingly complex, understanding and navigating this balance is crucial for stakeholders across various sectors.
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