Judge dismisses Chegg and Penske antitrust lawsuits targeting Google AI search

A US federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought by Chegg and Penske Media against Google regarding its AI-powered search features. The plaintiffs argued that Google’s AI Overviews unfairly scraped their content, leading to a significant decline in web traffic and revenue. They contended that Google’s practice of indexing sites for organic search while simultaneously using that data to train Gemini models constituted an anticompetitive practice. However, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the companies failed to prove illegal conduct. The court clarified that while publishers may have an expectation of receiving traffic from Google, this does not constitute a legally binding agreement. The ruling emphasizes that the current operational model of search engines does not violate antitrust laws, marking a significant legal victory for Google as it continues to integrate generative AI into its search products.