Italy's communications regulatory authority, AGCOM, stated on Thursday that it has formally requested the European Commission to investigate Alphabet's AI search functions. The regulator is concerned these features could harm the interests of news publishers and undermine media pluralism.

As Italy's coordinator for digital services, AGCOM referred Alphabet's Irish subsidiary to Brussels following a complaint from the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG). The authority is seeking a formal assessment of Alphabet's AI Overview and AI Mode services under the EU's Digital Services Act.

FIEG's complaint highlighted that AI-generated search summaries are reducing user clicks to original news sources, threatening the economic sustainability of publishers, particularly smaller, independent media outlets. The federation also raised concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated responses, warning that false or fabricated "hallucinated" information could spread when users cannot easily verify sources.

AGCOM stated it is asking the European Commission to assess whether Alphabet has breached its obligations under the Digital Services Act regarding systemic risk mitigation, media freedom and pluralism, and algorithmic transparency. These rules apply to very large online platforms and search engines.

Simultaneously, AGCOM announced it will establish a permanent roundtable bringing together Alphabet, other platforms, and publishers to discuss issues such as copyright, artificial intelligence, and media pluralism.