Google Wins Dismissal of PMC Lawsuit Over AI Search Snippets
Penske Media, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, has lost its lawsuit against Google over the tech giant's use of artificial intelligence-generated snippets from publishers' content. The U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that antitrust laws don't apply to AI overviews of content, citing 'knock on consequences' for publishers whose content is repurposed without compensation.
The court found that Google's crawling of publicly available websites is simply how search engines operate and doesn't constitute an implied deal with publishers. Mehta also concluded that search results and AI overviews aren't meaningfully different offerings, sharing the same core purpose.
Penske Media had claimed that Google illegally offers AI overviews at the top of its general search engine results page, diverting traffic away from its websites. The loss of referral traffic and ad revenue were seen as direct antitrust injuries caused by the search giant. However, Judge Mehta disagreed, stating that these losses aren't direct antitrust injuries.
The court dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning Penske Media can refile the claims in the future.