Publisher antitrust suits over Google AI Overviews

US District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed antitrust lawsuits from Chegg and Penske Media against Google over AI Overviews. Chegg alleged Google illegally scraped its educational content to power Gemini models, reducing site traffic. Penske Media, owner of Rolling Stone and Variety, claimed content indexed for organic search could be harvested for AI answers with no opt-out mechanism. The judge ruled that publishers have no legally enforceable agreement entitling them to search traffic in exchange for allowing crawling, writing that plaintiffs "have pleaded only that they have an 'expectation' that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free" and that "an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works." Both publishers also lacked standing on Google's search monopoly claims because their losses in subscriptions and licensing fees occur in markets separate from search. The dismissals come as Google runs an experimental pilot program paying roughly 100 publishers small amounts when their content materially contributes to Gemini-powered search results, though participants report payments equal roughly one-tenth of one percent of their advertising revenue.