US judge dismisses Penske Media and Chegg cases over Google AI Overviews
Judge Amit Mehta found the companies had not convincingly argued that Google used its search monopoly to gain an antitrust advantage.
A US federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought by Penske Media Corporation and education technology company Chegg over Google’s AI Overviews, according to Engadget.
The companies alleged that the feature repackaged their online content, diverted readers from their websites and damaged advertising revenue. Chegg also claimed Google pressured websites to allow AI scraping to remain in search results.
Judge Amit Mehta found the companies had not convincingly argued that Google leveraged its search monopoly to obtain free material for AI Overviews or gain an unfair advantage in digital publishing. The ruling addresses whether the claims established an antitrust violation; it does not determine that the alleged harms did not occur.
Mehta also ruled in 2024 that Google maintained a monopoly in online search services. In this case, he wrote that publishers’ expectation of receiving search traffic in exchange for making content available did not amount to an agreement.
Publishers can exclude webpages from AI Overviews while keeping them in traditional search results. But AI features occupy an increasing share of the results page, leaving publishers with concerns about the value of that option.
