A group of independent media companies in Europe has filed a complaint against Google with the European Union (EU). They allege that Google's "AI Overviews" feature violates antitrust laws.
Reuters reported that the Independent Publishers Alliance recently filed a complaint against Google with the European Commission on the 5th (local time). In their complaint submitted on the 30th of last month, they urged temporary measures, claiming that Google is abusing its dominance in the online search market with its AI Overviews.
Google's "AI Overviews" is a feature that displays generated summary information at the top of web pages when performing online searches. Launched in May of last year, it is currently available in over 100 countries. As of May, advertisements have started to be added to this feature.
The Independent Publishers Alliance stated, "Google's search engine is improperly utilizing the content of websites within the AI Overviews feature, causing significant harm to media companies in terms of traffic, readership, and revenue losses." They argue that the placement of AI Overviews, which displays Google's own summaries generated using media companies' materials at the top of regular search result pages, disadvantages the original content of those media companies.
They also noted, "Media companies using Google Search effectively have no choice but to accept this, as they lose the opportunity to be displayed in Google's regular search result pages if they refuse to allow their materials to be used for training Google's AI large language model or for summary generation."
The Movement for an Open Web, comprised of digital advertisers and media companies, and the U.K. nonprofit organization Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, which advocates for fairness in the tech sector, also joined in this complaint. They have requested similar lawsuits and temporary measures from the U.K. competition authorities.
Rosa Curling, co-director of Foxglove, stated, "Independent news is facing an existential threat due to Google's AI Overviews," and emphasized, "This is why we urge global regulatory bodies, including the EU Commission, to take action to exclude independent journalism from AI training."