Judge dismisses publisher, Chegg antitrust suits over Google AI Overviews

A federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits accusing Google of using AI Overviews to siphon traffic from publisher Penske Media Corporation (PMC) and education technology company Chegg.

In a memorandum opinion, Judge Amit Mehta said the companies failed to show that Google violated antitrust laws by repackaging their content in AI-generated search summaries. Mehta, who ruled in 2024 that Google maintains a monopoly in online search, found that neither PMC nor Chegg convincingly argued that Google leveraged that monopoly to obtain free content or gain an unfair advantage in digital publishing.

PMC and Chegg had alleged that Google's AI Overviews and its index of the web diverted readers away from their sites, hurting advertising revenue. Chegg also claimed that Google effectively forced websites to provide content for AI scraping or risk being excluded from search results.

Mehta rejected those claims, writing that the plaintiffs only pleaded an expectation that Google would send them search traffic if they made content available for free. He added that an expectation is not an agreement, and that it is simply how a general search engine works.

Engadget reached out to PMC and Chegg for comment but did not receive a response.