AI Overviews and Gemini draw scrutiny over publisher rights

The European Commission said on December 9, 2025, it had opened a formal abuse-of-dominance probe into how Google ingests and reuses online content to train and run its AI services, including AI Overviews in Search and AI Mode, as well as its Gemini model, and whether those practices impose unfair trading conditions on publishers and other content creators.

Regulators are focusing on two linked issues: the use of material from web publishers to generate AI summaries that sit above traditional search results, and the use of user-uploaded YouTube videos to train generative AI systems, potentially giving Google an information advantage while rival developers cannot access equivalent data.

EU competition 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,” adding that a “healthy information ecosystem depends on publishers having the resources to produce quality content.”

AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google places at the top of search results pages in more than 100 countries, above the list of links to external websites. The summaries are generated using text from publishers’ pages, and Google has begun testing advertisements inside these AI panels.

AI Mode, a separate feature in Search, provides chatbot-style answers rather than a list of hyperlinks. EU regulators say they are examining whether content used to power both services is being reused without adequate payment to the publishers involved and without a practical option to keep their material out of AI training while remaining visible in search.

The investigation also covers YouTube, which is owned by Google. Officials are looking at whether Google leverages videos uploaded to YouTube to train its AI models under terms that leave creators little choice, while contractual and technical restrictions prevent competing AI firms from accessing similar material.

The case stems from a July complaint filed by a coalition of independent publishers and advocacy groups, including the Independent Publishers Alliance, the Movement for an Open Web and UK-based nonprofit Foxglove. They argue that AI Overviews uses their articles to generate answers that reduce click-through to original stories while publishers receive neither meaningful compensation nor a clear way to opt out.

Tim Cowen, a lawyer advising the publishers’ groups, said Google had “broken the bargain that underpins the internet,” claiming that search now “puts its AiO, Gemini, first and adds insult to injury by exploiting website content to train Gemini,” according to the complaint cited by the Commission.

Google rejected the allegations, arguing that its AI and search products continue to drive large volumes of traffic to websites and that the case could slow down technological progress in Europe. “This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever,” a company spokesperson said, adding that it will keep working with “news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era.”

The company has previously said that new AI features in Search encourage people to ask more complex questions and discover a broader range of content, while insisting that it sends billions of clicks to publishers every day.

This is the second EU investigation targeting Google in less than a month. In November, the Commission opened a case into the company’s “site reputation abuse” spam policy, following complaints that the policy demotes news and other publisher sites in search results when they host content from commercial partners. That earlier probe is being conducted under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which sets special obligations for designated “gatekeeper” platforms.

By contrast, the new AI-related investigation relies on the EU’s longstanding competition rules on abuse of dominance rather than the newer regime, although the potential penalties are similar: if violations are confirmed, fines can reach up to 10% of Google’s worldwide annual revenue.

The probe into Google follows an investigation announced days earlier into how another large platform integrates AI into its messaging service and whether that setup disadvantages rival chatbots, reflecting wider EU efforts to scrutinize the competitive impact of generative AI on digital markets.

In parallel, Brussels is already enforcing the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act across a range of large online platforms, giving regulators powers to examine algorithms, request data access and impose remedies where they see risks to fair competition or media pluralism.

The latest case adds to a long-running antitrust clash between the EU and Google. Since 2017, the company has faced three major EU decisions over its shopping comparison service, Android mobile licensing practices and AdSense advertising contracts, resulting in fines totaling more than €8 billion, some of which Google has appealed.

More recently, EU regulators also fined Google €2.95 billion in 2025 over alleged self-preferencing in its advertising technology stack, underscoring the Commission’s willingness to target how the company treats rivals and partners across different lines of business.

The Commission has not set a deadline for concluding the AI content probe. It will now gather information from publishers, creators, competitors and Google itself to determine whether the company’s handling of web and video content for AI training and AI search features breaches EU rules on abuse of dominance.