Penske Media Corp., the company behind media brands like Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, has filed a lawsuit against Google LLC, alleging that Google exploits its monopoly in general search to compel publishers to provide content for free, thereby supporting Google's own artificial intelligence products.
The case particularly focuses on Google's AI Overviews feature, which appears at the top of search results by summarizing answers. Penske claims these overviews repurpose its news reporting without permission, divert readers from original articles, and unlawfully use its content to train and sustain Google's AI models, all while reducing the company's traffic and revenue.
Filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the complaint states that Google sets the terms of “search referral traffic” sales — the flow of users to publisher websites — contingent on publishers simultaneously providing three other distinct products. These include the snippets Google re-publishes in its search results, articles and media used to train its Gemini AI model, and content used for retrieval-augmented generation within AI Overviews.
According to Penske Media, this setup constitutes unlawful reciprocity and monopolization under the Sherman Act, as publishers like Penske Media are effectively unable to opt out without losing crucial traffic from the world's dominant search engine.
Penske argues that Google’s use of AI Overviews drives users away from original reporting, diminishes ad and affiliate revenue by suppressing click-through rates, and unfairly enriches Google by enabling it to build and market AI capabilities supported by third-party news.
The lawsuit outlines six counts: reciprocal dealing and monopolization under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, monopoly, attempted monopolization, and common law unjust enrichment.
“As a leading global publisher, it’s our responsibility to protect PMC’s top-tier journalists and award-winning journalism as sources of factual reporting,” Penske Media CEO Jay Penske stated, as reported by TechCrunch. “Furthermore, we have a duty to actively fight for the future and uphold the integrity of digital media — all of which are threatened by Google’s current actions.”
Penske is seeking triple damages, a permanent injunction to halt the alleged practices, disgorgement or recovery of profits earned from its content, and legal fees. The company has also requested a jury trial.
In response to the lawsuit, Google spokesperson José Castañeda told The Wall Street Journal, “With AI Overviews, people find search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content discovery. Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to websites across the web, and AI Overviews directs traffic to an even broader range of sites.”
“We will vigorously defend against these baseless claims,” Castañeda added.
This is not the first lawsuit Google has faced over its use of AI-generated summaries in search results. In February, education technology company Chegg Inc. sued Google, claiming that AI-generated summaries in search results hurt the online education company’s traffic and revenue.
