Google Faces EU Antitrust Heat Over AI Overviews Grabbing Spotlight from Publishers

Google’s AI-generated search feature is under fire again—this time from Europe. A growing number of publishers say the tech giant is siphoning off traffic, readers, and revenue by spotlighting AI-written answers trained on their original work.

Complaint Filed Over AI Eating Into Publisher Traffic

A group of independent media outlets lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission last week, accusing Google of abusing its dominance through AI Overviews—those AI-crafted blurbs now popping up right at the top of many search queries.

These Overviews summarize information scraped from across the web, effectively offering users answers without them needing to click on the actual source sites. For publishers already struggling with shrinking ad dollars and algorithm changes, this feels like salt in the wound.

“Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews… which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers,” the complaint reads, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

It’s not just about fewer eyeballs. Publishers argue that they’re stuck in a bind: opt out of training Google’s AI on their content, and they risk losing visibility entirely in Search—effectively disappearing online.

Google Pushes Back, Says It’s Sending ‘Quality Clicks’

Google’s response has been relatively calm, if not dismissive. The company insists AI Overviews aren’t replacing traditional search results, but supplementing them.

“More than any other company, Google prioritizes sending traffic to the web,” a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company sends “billions of clicks to websites each day.”

They say the new AI results actually help users ask better questions—broadening the kinds of queries people make and creating “new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered.”

Still, critics aren’t buying it. The backlash underscores a much larger concern in media and tech circles: who really owns the internet’s knowledge?

Publishers Say They’re Feeding the Beast That’s Killing Them

At the heart of the issue is a familiar dynamic. Google scours the open web, trains its large language models on the work of journalists, bloggers, analysts—and then rolls out AI products that essentially paraphrase and repackage that content in a more convenient format.

Only now, the stakes are a lot higher. And more visible.

One media executive, speaking anonymously to avoid jeopardizing their relationship with Google, put it bluntly: “It’s like being asked to cook the meal, and then Google walks in, serves it, and leaves you with the dishes and no tip.”

That’s especially bitter for smaller, independent publishers who can’t rely on subscription revenue or sponsored content to stay afloat. They depend on clicks, pageviews, and ad impressions. AI Overviews, critics say, are making that model unworkable.

No Real Opt-Out Without Losing Search Presence

The complaint also claims that publishers have no meaningful way to stop Google from scraping their material for AI training. The only option? Use technical tools to block Googlebot entirely. But doing that means your site won’t show up in Google Search at all.

That’s the definition of a rock and a hard place.

Here’s the problem, laid out in a way publishers see it:

• You want to be found online? You need Google Search.

• But being in Google Search means your content feeds AI Overviews.

• And AI Overviews reduce the need for users to click on your site in the first place.

It’s a lose-lose-lose.

EU’s Competition Authority Already Watching Google Closely

This latest complaint lands on the desk of European Commission regulators who are already knee-deep in antitrust investigations into Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and others under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The DMA, which took effect earlier this year, aims to rein in what it calls “gatekeeper” platforms—companies so big and embedded in online ecosystems that they shape markets on their own terms.

Google, of course, is one of them.

The Commission hasn’t commented publicly on the latest complaint. But Brussels has already forced Google to tweak how it displays certain content in Search, including shopping links and hotel listings.

It’s entirely possible this new case will trigger another lengthy probe into how Google’s AI-driven tools impact smaller players in the digital economy.

A Growing Pattern of Friction Between AI and Journalism

This isn’t an isolated fight. Around the world, publishers have begun speaking out about how AI threatens their business models. Some are suing OpenAI. Others are striking licensing deals. A few are experimenting with AI tools of their own.

Still, the anxiety runs deep.

Last month, the News Media Alliance—a U.S. trade group representing over 2,000 outlets—called AI Overviews a “direct threat” to journalism. In Canada, lawmakers are drafting rules that would force tech giants to pay for news content used in AI training datasets.

The table below shows a snapshot of how different countries are tackling this tension:

This global wave of pushback shows that while AI tools like Overviews may be convenient for users, they come with a cost—often paid by the folks who actually produce the content.

One sentence worth pausing on.

Google Isn’t Alone, But It’s the Biggest Target

Of course, Google isn’t the only one in the hot seat. Microsoft’s Copilot AI has similar capabilities, and ChatGPT’s web-enabled mode offers summaries of web pages without crediting the source in any meaningful way.

But Google, because of its Search monopoly, draws the most heat. When it makes changes, the ripple effect is massive—especially for an industry that’s already seen ad revenue drain away to tech platforms.

Whether this complaint results in action is anyone’s guess. But the message is loud and clear: publishers are tired of feeding the AI engines while their own sites get buried.