EU Opens Antitrust Probe of Google Over Content Use for AI

The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google has breached European Union competition rules over content used for artificial intelligence (AI) purposes.

The EU’s executive branch said in a statement dated Dec. 8 that it will examine whether Google used the content of web publishers for its search engine’s AI-powered services, AI Overview and AI Mode, without adequately compensating publishers or without giving them the option to refuse the use of their content.

AI Overview generates summaries of a topic prompted by a user typing a query into the search engine, and they appear above the relevant results. AI Mode is a search feature that generates conversational responses to search queries, similar to a chatbot.

The European Commission says it also will see whether content creators on YouTube are adequately compensated for or have the option to opt out of their material being used to train Google’s generative AI models.

The commission said YouTube’s content creators “have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models.”

“Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data,” it stated.

The investigation will also look into whether Google gave itself “privileged access” to content, “thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage,” the commission said in the statement.

EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said: “Google may be abusing its dominant position as a search engine to impose unfair trading conditions on publishers by using their online content to provide its own AI-powered services.

“A healthy information ecosystem depends on publishers having the resources to produce quality content. We will not allow gatekeepers to dictate those choices.”

A Google spokesperson said the investigation “risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever.

“Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era,” the spokesperson said.

Second EU Investigation in 2 Months

This is the second investigation that the EU has opened against Google in as many months.

On Nov. 13, the commission launched a probe over a possible breach by Google of the EU’s Digital Markets Act for demoting media publishers’ content in search results under the company’s “site reputation abuse policy”—which the tech giant calls its “anti-spam efforts.”

The EU’s executive branch said that in its monitoring, it found that Google was demoting websites and news media in its search results when those sites included third-party sponsored content.

“This policy appears to directly impact a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetise their websites and content,” the commission said in a statement.

The bloc said it was investigating whether Google’s demotions of websites and content in searches “may impact publishers’ freedom to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and cooperate with third-party content providers.”

Google Defends ‘Anti-Spam’ Efforts

Google defended its policy in a blog post.

“Google Search’s policy against spam exists for one reason: to protect people from deceptive, low-quality content and scams—and the shady tactics that promote them,” Pandu Nayak, chief scientist at Google Search, wrote.

Nayak said that Google has worked with the European Commission on efforts to protect European consumers, including against spam.

“Unfortunately, the investigation announced today into our anti-spam efforts is misguided and risks harming millions of European users,” he wrote.

The chief scientist added that the investigation was “without merit,” as a German court had already dismissed a similar claim and said its anti-spam policy was valid.

Nayak said the policy was informed by complaints from users that they were seeing “degraded and spammy” search results as a result of “parasite [search engine optimization]” or “site reputation abuse.” This refers to when a spammer pays money to a publisher to show its content and links, benefiting from the rank and reputation of that site “in an effort to trick users into clicking on low-quality content,” he said.

As a result, in March 2024, the company updated its anti-spam policy so “a site can’t pay or use deceptive measures to improve its ranking Search,” Nayak said.

Reuters contributed to this report.