Independent publishers in Europe have filed an antitrust complaint against Google with the European Commission, claiming the tech giant’s AI Overviews feature harms their businesses. The complaint, submitted on June 30, 2025, targets one of Google’s most significant recent additions to its search engine.
AI Overviews are computer-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results in over 100 countries. When someone searches for information, these AI-created snippets provide immediate answers without requiring users to click through to the original websites.
The Independent Publishers Alliance leads the complaint, joined by the Movement for an Open Web and British nonprofit Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company. The publishers are also seeking emergency measures to prevent what they describe as “irreparable harm” while regulators investigate.
At the heart of the dispute is a simple problem: when Google shows AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, fewer people click on the publishers’ websites. This translates directly into lost traffic, readers, and money for content creators.
“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,” states the complaint document. The situation worsened in May 2025 when Google began placing advertisements within these AI summaries, creating a new revenue stream for itself while potentially further reducing publisher earnings.
Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove, highlighted the severity of the situation: “Independent news faces an existential threat: Google’s AI Overviews.” She urged regulators worldwide to “take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out.”
A key grievance is that publishers feel trapped in an unfair system. They cannot prevent Google from using their content in AI summaries without also disappearing from regular search results entirely. Given Google’s dominance in online search, such an option isn’t viable for most publishers who rely on search traffic.
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“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,” the complaint explains.
Google defends its AI features, saying they create new opportunities. “New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered,” a Google spokesperson said. The company maintains it sends “billions of clicks to websites each day” and argues that traffic fluctuations happen for various reasons, including “seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates.”
This EU complaint arrives at a critical time as regulators increase scrutiny of large tech companies. The European Union’s Digital Markets Act aims to curb the market power of tech giants, and this case could test how these rules apply to AI technologies.
The publishers have also filed a similar complaint with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. These European actions mirror concerns raised in the United States, where an educational technology company has sued Google, claiming AI Overviews reduces demand for original content.
The impacts could be far-reaching. According to data from web analytics company Similarweb, publisher traffic across the internet has seen dramatic declines, with some major sites experiencing drops between 27% and 59%. Many news outlets are already adapting by adding paywalls or focusing on direct reader relationships.
For everyday internet users, this legal battle highlights growing tensions over who benefits from online content. While AI summaries offer quick answers, they raise questions about the future of journalism and content creation if original publishers cannot sustain their operations.
The European Commission has not yet commented on the complaint. If the interim measure requested by publishers is granted, it could temporarily limit how Google uses AI Overviews in Europe while a full investigation proceeds. The outcome may shape how AI integrates into search engines worldwide and determine whether content creators receive fair compensation in the AI era.
