Google Sued by Penske Media Over AI Summaries and Publisher Content Use

Google is facing a fresh legal challenge after Penske Media Corporation (PMC) filed a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of illegally using publishers’ content to power its AI-generated summaries. PMC, which owns major outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Vibe, and Artforum, argues that Google’s AI Overviews are undermining journalism by republishing content without proper consent and reducing traffic to publisher websites.

“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,” said PMC CEO Jay Penske. “We also have a responsibility to fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity — all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions.”

Allegations of Monopoly Power

The lawsuit claims that Google is leveraging its dominance in online search to coerce publishers into allowing their content to be used in AI Overviews and for AI model training. According to PMC, the “fundamental bargain” of allowing Google to index content in exchange for traffic has been broken, as AI Overviews allegedly cannibalize clicks that would normally drive revenue through ads, subscriptions, and affiliate links.

PMC says it has already experienced significant declines in referral traffic since Google began rolling out AI Overviews, calling the opt-out option — removing content entirely from Google search — “devastating” for publishers.

Google Pushes Back

In response, Google spokesperson José Castañeda defended AI Overviews, saying they make search results “more helpful” and can increase the diversity of traffic sources.
“Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites,” Castañeda said. “We will defend against these meritless claims.”

Broader Context

Google is not the first AI company to face copyright-related lawsuits from publishers and authors, but this marks the first major case directly targeting Google’s AI Overviews. The timing is significant: while Google recently avoided a structural breakup in a U.S. antitrust case, European regulators are investigating similar concerns about AI Overviews’ competitive impact.

For publishers, the dispute reflects growing tensions over how AI platforms depend on journalism to generate content while simultaneously threatening the traffic and revenues that sustain newsrooms.

What’s at Stake

The outcome of PMC’s lawsuit could have wide-reaching implications for the digital publishing and search ecosystem. If successful, the case may force Google to rethink how AI Overviews use publisher content, setting a precedent for how AI-generated summaries interact with journalism in the future.