Penske Media sues Google, says AI Overviews hurt revenue, traffic

Penske Media – which owns Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety — is suing Google. Google is accused of stealing Penske’s journalism to power its AI-generated summaries in search.

Why we care. This is the first lawsuit by a major U.S. publisher targeting Google’s AI Overviews, which have negatively impacted traffic and revenue for various types of sites. Another publisher, MailOnline, reported that AI Overviews were responsible for a 56% CTR drop.

What’s happening. Penske Media’s lawsuit, filed Friday in D.C. federal court, claims Google forces publishers to accept the use of their content in AI summaries or risk being buried in search. The suit alleges:

• Google’s near-90% search dominance lets it avoid paying for content – unlike rival OpenAI, which has struck licensing deals with major publishers.
• AI Overviews appear on ~20% of searches linking to its sites and blames the feature for a one-third drop in affiliate revenue by late 2024.

What they’re saying:

• “We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions,” Penske said.
• “AI Overviews make Search more helpful and send traffic to more sites. We will defend against these meritless claims,” said a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

Zoom out. This is the second lawsuit seeking compensation for Google’s AI Overviews hurting traffic and revenue.

• Educational technology company Chegg sued Google in February with similar claims.

Dig deeper.

• Google’s AI Overviews are hurting clicks: Pew study
• New Google AI Overviews data: Search clicks fell 30% in last year
• New data: Google AI Overviews are hurting click-through rates
• Most users only read a third of Google’s AI Overviews: Study