is a news author who covers the streaming wars, person tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a author and publishing company at MUO.
A national fairness has dismissed a brace of antitrust lawsuits submitted by Chegg and Rolling Stone genitor business Penske Media Corporation, which accused Google of driving distant web traffic alongside its AI-powered hunt features, as reported before by Reuters. US District Judge Amit Mehta takes Google’s flank in a ruling on Wednesday, penning that PMC and Chegg’s claims don’t remain up to antitrust law.
In lawsuits submitted final year, Chegg and PMC accused Google of abusing its monopoly power by coercing publishers into supplying satisfied for AI Overviews for free, or hazard disappearing from hunt results. The publishers alleged Google’s practices diverted traffic distant from their sites, hurting their revenue.
Judge Mehta, who made a landmark antitrust ruling against Google in 2024, disagrees alongside Chegg and PMC’s claims. “Plaintiffs have pleaded lone that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google volition dispatch them hunt traffic if they create their satisfied accessible for free,” Mehta writes. “But an anticipation is not an agreement. It is merely how a broad hunt motor works.”
Mehta adds that the court is not “unsympathetic to the circumstance publishers now discover themselves in,” but writes that antitrust rules can’t substitute a legislative body’s decision to location the financial effect of “new innovation.”
Meanwhile, publishers continue to see effects of Google’s AI-powered hunt overhaul, alongside traffic to news outlets and small websites taking a steep dive. This week, The Information reported that Google is paying about 100 publishers for their contributions to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini as part of a aviator program.
Disclosure: The Verge is part of Penske Media.
Follow topics and authors from this narrative to see additional akin this in your personalized homepage nourish and to obtain email updates.
