By Ben Fritz

The publisher of Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter has sued Google, alleging that the AI summaries which appear atop search results are illegally using its reporting and depressing online traffic.

Penske Media is the first major U.S. news company to challenge Google and its parent Alphabet in court over its growing use of artificial intelligence, which many publishers have said is damaging their businesses.

Penske filed the antitrust suit late Friday in federal district court in the District of Columbia, where a judge last year found Google has an illegal monopoly in internet search. That judge earlier this month imposed softer penalties than the government had been seeking, in part because of the growing competition Google faces from other AI companies.

Online education company Chegg has also sued Google over its AI overviews in D.C. district court, as has a small Arkansas newspaper, the Helena World Chronicle, in a proposed class action case.

"With AI Overviews, people find search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered," Google spokesman José Castañeda said. "Every day, Google sends billions of clicks to sites across the web, and AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites. We will defend against these meritless claims."

In addition to its Gemini chatbot that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google has been integrating AI more prominently into its search results. Many queries now produce an "AI Overview" with information related to a search or question above links to other sites. It has also introduced an "AI Mode" option alongside the traditional search page.

AI Summaries and AI mode include links to websites where the information was found. But publishers including Penske have said consumers often have little need to follow the links because the information they need is in the AI-generated answer.

Penske said in its complaint that about 20% of Google search results with a link to one of its sites include AI overviews and that percentage has been rising. It also said revenue on its sites from affiliate links for online shopping have dropped by more than a third since the end of 2024, which it attributed to decreased traffic from Google.

"Siphoning and discouraging user traffic to PMC's and other publishers' websites in this manner will have profoundly harmful effects on the overall quality and quantity of the information accessible on the internet," the complaint alleges, using the acronym for Penske Media Corp.

Google's Castañeda said clicks on links that accompany AI overviews are higher quality for publishers, because he said those users spend more time on the site.

Penske alleges that Google's AI features are built on information it provides without compensation. The publishing company said it faces a Catch-22 of either blocking Google from normally presenting its sites in search results, which it said would devastate its business, or unwillingly fueling the AI summaries.

"With every article it publishes on its websites, PMC is forced to provide Google with more training and grounding material for its [AI] systems to generate AI Overviews or refine its models, adding fuel to a fire that threatens PMC's entire publishing business," the complaint states.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against Google for its alleged unlawful behavior, as well as unspecified monetary damages.

Thirteen publications owned by Penske are plaintiffs in the case, including Billboard, Variety, and Vibe. Penske is also the largest shareholder of Vox Media -- owner of New York magazine -- which isn't a plaintiff.

Media companies have sued other AI companies for allegedly using their information without compensation. The Wall Street Journal and corporate sibling the New York Post sued Perplexity, while the New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft. The law firm representing the Times is also representing Penske Media.

Anthropic recently agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion to the authors of some 500,000 books to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit over its use of pirated books.

Several tech companies have agreed to compensate news companies for the use of their content for AI. The Journal's parent company, News Corp, has a content deal with OpenAI. Amazon has an agreement with the New York Times. Google hasn't made any such deals.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Google has a partnership with the Associated Press for news content in its AI applications. "Rolling Stone Publisher Sues Google Over AI Summaries," at 3:52 p.m. ET, incorrectly said Google had no such partnerships.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2025 21:23 ET (01:23 GMT)

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