European Publishers Take on Google in Major EU Antitrust Battle Over AI Search

European Publishers Council Takes Aim at Google's AI Search

The European Publishers Council has escalated its fight against Google by filing a formal antitrust complaint with European Union regulators. The complaint targets Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, features that generate AI-powered summaries at the top of search results using content sourced from news publishers.

The EPC, which represents leaders of major European media companies spanning newspapers, magazines, and digital outlets, accuses Google of abusing its dominant position in search. Their core argument is that Google has fundamentally changed how search works, shifting from a service that directs users to publisher websites into an answer engine that keeps users within Google's own ecosystem.

Traffic Losses Hit Publishers Hard

The complaint comes amid alarming data showing the real-world impact of AI Overviews on publisher traffic. Research tracking over two thousand five hundred news sites globally found that Google search referrals declined by a third in 2025. Some publishers have reported click-through rate drops as high as eighty nine percent since Google rolled out AI Overviews to all United States users in May 2024.

No Real Way to Opt Out

Publishers face what they describe as an impossible choice. If they block Google from using their content for AI summaries, they also lose visibility in standard search results entirely. The EPC argues this amounts to coercion, forcing publishers to surrender their content for AI use or face disappearing from the internet's most important discovery platform.

EU Investigation Already Underway

The complaint reinforces an existing European Commission investigation launched in December 2025, which is examining whether Google violated EU competition rules by using publisher and YouTube creator content to power its AI services without adequate compensation. EU competition chief Teresa Ribera has signalled that interim measures could be imposed to prevent permanent damage to media companies while the full investigation continues.

Google Pushes Back

Google has disputed the allegations, claiming its AI features drive billions of clicks to websites daily and create new opportunities for content discovery. The company has characterised complaints against its AI practices as attempts to stifle innovation in a competitive market.