Google wins dismissal of Chegg, Penske Media lawsuits over AI overviews
Google wins dismissal of Chegg, Penske Media lawsuits over AI overviews By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Alphabet’s Google has persuaded a US federal judge to dismiss lawsuits from education technology company Chegg and Rolling Stone publisher Penske Media Corp that alleged the search engine giant unlawfully used their content in AI-generated summaries that draw readers away from their websites.
In his ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said Chegg and Penske's claims that Google’s business practices violate antitrust law “fail to get out of the starting gate.”
The companies said in lawsuits filed last year that Google broke antitrust law by forcing publishers to allow AI overviews of their content if they want to remain indexed in Google’s search results. They alleged they lost revenue from reduced traffic to their sites.
“Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free,” Mehta wrote. “But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works.”
Chegg and Penske, which also publishes Billboard and Variety magazines, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google has denied any wrongdoing.
The plaintiffs said in a competitive market Google would pay them for republishing their work or using their content to train its AI systems.
Google countered that it has no obligation to index publishers’ content on their preferred terms.
Mehta said he is not “unsympathetic" to the situation of publishers and other online creators whose content Google takes and repurposes without compensation.” But he said antitrust laws don’t substitute for legislators’ power to address how innovation may cause economic harm.
The judge in March rejected similar claims by a publisher suing Google.
The cases are Chegg Inc v. Google LLC, US District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 25-cv-543, and Penske Media Corp v. Google, same court, No. 25-cv-3192.
For Chegg and Penske: Ian Crosby and Davida Brook of Susman Godfrey
For Google: Sonal Mehta and David Gringer of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
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(Reporting by Mike Scarcella)