JAKARTA - The European Publishers Council (EPC) has filed a formal antitrust complaint against Google with the European Commission (EC). They accused the tech giant of abusing its dominant position through the AI Overviews and AI Mode features in its search engine.
In a complaint under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the EPC assessed that Google used artificial intelligence-based summaries and chatbot-style answers on the Search page without permission, without an effective opt-out mechanism, and without fair compensation for publishers.
EPC argues that Google has changed the function of Search from a mere referral service to an "answer engine" that replaces the original media report. By displaying AI answers directly on the search page, users are said to remain within the Google ecosystem without having to click on a news site.
As a result, publishers face a decline in traffic, audience, and revenue that are the foundation of the sustainability of professional journalism.
The European Commission itself in December 2025 has announced an antitrust investigation into Google's use of web publisher content for AI training.
Main Findings in the Complaint
In its executive summary, EPC outlines a number of key alleged violations:
Systematic traffic substitution EPC says AI Overviews now appear in more than 40 percent of search results for informational queries. The cited independent study estimates a traffic drop of more than 30 percent for affected queries. In fact, some publishers report a click-through rate of more than 50 percent on desktop and mobile. For AI Mode, the interface with minimal links is said to make less than 5 percent of queries click to external sites.
Exploitative use of content Google is accused of using high-quality journalistic content as an important input for AI training, retrieval-augmented generation, and the formation of answers. The content is not only used as training material, but is also turned into a substitute product that competes directly with the original work, without consent or payment.
Lack of effective control or opt-out Although Google provides tools such as robots.txt, meta tags, and Google-Extended, EPC considers these mechanisms to be ineffective or coercive. If publishers choose to opt out, the consequence is a decrease in visibility or even being removed from the search index, which is the main gateway to the digital audience.
Unfair trading conditions EPC assessed that Google acted as an inevitable trading partner due to its dominance in the general search market. With that position, Google is said to impose uniform and non-negotiable terms, which in practice requires publishers to submit content for AI purposes as a price to remain indexed.
Weakening the licensing market According to the complaint, a number of other AI providers have entered into licensing agreements with publishers. However, Google is considered to rely on its dominance in search engines to access content without payment, thus hindering the formation of a healthy licensing market for the use of copyrighted works by AI.
The EU's alleged copyright infringement EPC also highlights the potential for publishers' related rights (neighbouring rights) violations under the Digital Single Market Copyright Directive (DSM). They assess that the broad exemption of text and data mining, limited transparency in the AI Act, and weak technical controls make publisher rights ineffective.
Structural and long-term losses Losses are not only in the form of lost revenue. Disintermediated publishers risk losing relationships with audiences, brand recognition, user data, and subscription conversion opportunities. Small, regional, and specialist publishers are judged to be most vulnerable to being knocked out of the market, which could ultimately reduce media pluralism and weaken democracy.
EPC members include major media groups such as DMG Media, The Guardian, News UK, and The New York Times.
Why This Matters
The dispute is at the intersection of competition law, copyright, and the future of digital news distribution. Recent data shows Google's AI Overviews can lower click-through rates by as much as 58 percent, reinforcing concerns that AI summaries divert traffic from the original publishers.
Outside Europe, India is also studying a "One Nation, One Licence, One Payment" model for AI training on copyrighted works, leading to mandatory licensing and remuneration without an opt-out option. This indicates that global policymakers are beginning to view AI training as a use that must be compensated.
For publishers, this issue is not just about lost traffic, but about whether competition and copyright laws can ensure that AI developments do not undermine the economic foundation of professional journalism.
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