Google is facing a lawsuit from the owner of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety for allegedly using its journalism without consent in its AI overview and reducing traffic to its websites.
The lawsuit from Panske Media Corporation (PMC) is the first to target Google and its parent company, Alphabet, for showing AI-generated summaries at the top of searches.
Multiple publishers and authors have already sued other AI companies over copyright concerns, and Google is also facing an antitrust complaint against it over AI Overviews in Europe.
“As a leading global publisher, we have a duty to protect PMC's best-in-class journalists and award-winning journalism as a source of truth," Chairman, Founder and CEO of PMC Jay Penske said in a statement.
"Furthermore, 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."
PMC said around 20% of Google search results that link to a PMC site include a Google overview, and it expects this number to increase. The company also said its affiliate revenue had declined by more than a third by the end of 2024 compared to its peak, citing search traffic declines.
Penske also alleged that Google only includes publishers’ content in its search results if it can also use their articles in AI summaries.
Without this leverage, Google would have to pay publishers for the right to republish their work or use it to train its AI systems, PMC said in the lawsuit.
PMC also said Google was able to do this due to its search dominance, pointing to a federal court’s finding last year that the tech giant held nearly 90% of the U.S. search market.
"Siphoning and discouraging user traffic to PMC's and other publishers' websites in this manner will have profoundly harmful effects on the overall quality and quantity of the information accessible on the Internet," the lawsuit said.
"If unchecked, these anticompetitive practices will destroy the business model that supports independent journalism.”
In response, Google argued that its AI overviews send traffic to a wider variety of sites.
“With AI Overviews, people find Search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered," Google spokesperson José Castañeda said.
“Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites. We will defend against these meritless claims.”
