A coalition of European independent publishers, led by the Independent Publishers Alliance, has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Google.
The complaint accuses Google’s AI Overviews AI-generated search summaries that appear at the top of results pages of misusing publisher content without consent, thereby harming competition and threatening independent journalism.
The group argues that AI Overviews siphon traffic away from original news sources by summarizing answers using their content, now with ads included.
Publishers say they cannot opt out of the Overviews without disappearing from regular search listings altogether.
They are urging regulators to impose an interim measure to prevent “irreparable harm” while the case is reviewed.
Google responded by defending the feature as a tool for discovery and claimed that traffic changes can occur for various reasons, while asserting it still sends “billions of clicks” to websites daily.
This case comes as the EU increases scrutiny under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
A similar complaint has also been filed in the UK, and parallels a lawsuit in the U.S. The outcome could influence how AI is integrated into global search and advertising ecosystems.
