Google is yet again dragged to court, this time by Penske Media, accusing the tech giant of using its journalism in AI summaries without consent. The case is registered by Penske Media, the owner of renowned magazines like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety. As reported by Reuters, Penske Media says that these ‘AI Overviews’, which provide summaries, cut traffic to its sites.
This threatens subscription revenue and forces publishers to allow use of their articles in AI tools or risk exclusion from search results.
Penske Says Google Misused Its Market Power
Penske Media, run by Jay Penske, says that its sites used to reach 120 million visits monthly, but with the advent of AI Overviews, the traffic has dropped. AI Overview is a feature introduced by Google to provide AI-generated summaries on any topic.
The company further claims that around 20% of searches that once linked to its sites now show AI Overviews instead, and also alleges that the affiliate revenue has already fallen by more than a third from its 2024 peak, as reported by Reuters.
The lawsuit states that Google has already established its dominance in search, holding nearly 90% of the US market, to impose unfair terms on publishers, according to a previous court ruling.
“We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions,” Penske said in a statement.
Google, Publishers, & The AI Licensing Debate
In response, Google said that AI Overviews make search “more helpful” and help users to find a wide variety of sites. “We will defend against these meritless claims,” spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.
The case comes as other publishers raise concerns. Earlier this year, education firm Chegg also sued Google over AI summaries. The News/Media Alliance, representing over 2,200 publishers, said Google’s scale gives it the power to avoid licensing deals like those OpenAI has signed with News Corp, Financial Times, and The Atlantic.
For now, Google has resisted such agreements, even as its Gemini chatbot continues to compete with ChatGPT in the race for AI-powered search dominance.
