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April 21, 2025
The introduction of Google's "AI Overview" in search raises questions regarding copyright, competition, and media diversity and is now being closely examined by the EU Commission. The feature generates AI-based summaries from search results, which are presented directly to users in the search view. This leads to concerns that users will click on the original websites less often, resulting in less traffic and advertising revenue for website operators.
The Commission is examining the compatibility of the AI summaries with various EU directives. In addition to copyright, particularly in the context of text and data mining (TDM), the competition rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the platform requirements of the Digital Services Act (DSA) are also in focus. Furthermore, the Commission is investigating whether the AI function meets the requirements of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) regarding media diversity. This aspect is particularly relevant, as the AI summaries could potentially limit the visibility of smaller and independent media outlets.
Since the introduction of the AI function, numerous publishers have reported a drastic decline in website traffic. This has also been confirmed internally by Google, as reported by the financial service Bloomberg. In a submission to the British government, the BBC criticizes that AI intermediaries like Google do not adequately represent the value of their reporting and jeopardize the credibility of the original source through inaccurate summaries, so-called hallucinations. Other media outlets share these concerns.
Google argues that the use of copyrighted works for the AI summaries could fall under the TDM exception for research purposes. However, this requires the legal accessibility of the content and the absence of an explicit reservation of rights by the copyright holder. Currently, Google does not offer copyright holders the option to prevent the use of their content in the AI overviews. An opt-out is only possible for the AI training, but not for the display in the search results. Google predicts that the distinction between AI search and conventional search will become less relevant in the future.
Shortly before the introduction of the AI overviews in Europe, Google published an experiment that allegedly showed no measurable impact on company revenue from removing European news content from search results. This step was seen by many publishers as a demonstration of power. They argue that Google benefits from the credibility of their content, even if the direct revenue from the news business is comparatively small for the company.
The EU Commission's investigation will show whether Google's AI summaries are compatible with applicable EU directives. The results could have far-reaching consequences for the future of search engines and the role of publishers in the digital space. The discussion about an appropriate balance between innovation, copyright protection, and media diversity will continue to occupy the industry.
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