Google is facing a new antitrust case in the European Union, this time due to the impact of its AI Overviews. The group Independent Publishers Alliance has filed a complaint against the technology giant with the European Commission, alleging that its AI-generated overviews harm website traffic and revenue results.
The AI Overviews arrived in nine European countries in March of 2025, nearly a year after their launch in the United States. This feature uses generative AI to create overviews composed of text and relevant links derived from web information, allowing quick and concise responses to queries in the Google search engine.
The launch of these AI-generated overviews has rapidly gained traction with users, thus impacting web traffic. According to a report by the SEO platform BrightEdge, since the activation of AI Overviews in the United States, the CTR decreased by 30%.
In Europe, their effects are also becoming apparent, and SEO professionals are seeking ways to prepare for their consequences. For its part, the Independent Publishers Alliance has sought to challenge Google directly through a complaint to which the news outlet Reuters has had access.
The document submitted by this group of independent publishers is dated June 30, and accuses the technology company of “misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which has caused and continues to cause significant harm to publishers, including news publishers, in the form of loss of traffic, readers, and revenue.”
They also note that: “publishers who use Google Search do not have the option to prevent their material from being ingested for the training of Google’s large language model AI, nor from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear on Google’s general search results page.”
The complaint has also requested the European Commission to implement interim measures to prevent harm, which, according to the Independent Publishers Alliance, could be irreparable.
For its part, Google has defended the usefulness of its AI Overviews, indicating that these are also intended to drive traffic to the sources on which they are based. “The new AI experiences in search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities to discover content and businesses.”
Additionally, its spokesperson stated that fluctuations in web traffic may result from numerous factors, thereby distancing responsibility for its AI-generated overviews. “The reality is that sites may gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons, including seasonal demand, user interests, and regular algorithmic updates to Search.”
This is not the first lawsuit that Google has received over its AI Overviews. Earlier this year, the American educational technology company Chegg filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing its AI Overviews of harming its web traffic and, consequently, its revenue.
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