A federal judge has dismissed two antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Penske Media Corporation (the parent company of Rolling Stone), which accused Google of using its AI-powered search features to drive web traffic away from publishers' sites.
Judge Dismisses Antitrust Lawsuits Over Google’s AI Overviews
US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled on Wednesday that the claims made by PMC and Chegg do not meet the requirements of antitrust law. In the lawsuits filed last year, the plaintiffs alleged that Google abused its monopoly power by coercing publishers into providing content for AI Overviews for free or facing reduced visibility in search results. They argued these practices diverted traffic and harmed their revenue.
However, Judge Mehta disagreed with the plaintiffs' arguments. The ruling noted that the plaintiffs only pleaded an "expectation" that Google would provide search traffic if they made content available for free, stating that an expectation does not constitute an agreement and is simply how general search engines function.
The judge added that while the court is not unsympathetic to the economic challenges facing publishers due to new innovations, antitrust rules cannot replace decisions that a legislative body must make to address those impacts.
While the legal challenges face setbacks, publishers continue to report significant drops in traffic to news outlets and smaller websites following Google’s AI search overhaul. Separately, reports indicate that Google is currently operating a pilot program paying approximately 100 publishers for contributions to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini.
Sources
- Judge dismisses antitrust lawsuits over Google’s AI Overviews （The Verge AI, 2026-10-01）
- DocumentCloud