Google seeks dismissal of Rolling Stone's publisher lawsuit over AI summaries in search results

Google has asked a US federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Penske Media Corp (PMC), the publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety, which accuses the tech giant of unlawfully diverting traffic away from media websites by displaying AI-generated summaries in search results, as per reports.

In a filing submitted in Washington’s federal district court, Google and its parent company Alphabet argued that PMC’s claims are “legally defective in every way.”

The lawsuit, filed last year, alleges that Google violated antitrust law by effectively forcing publishers to allow their content to be used in AI overviews if they want to remain indexed in Google Search. Online education company Chegg has filed a separate lawsuit making similar allegations over Google’s AI-generated summaries.

Google said in its filing that its AI overviews appear alongside traditional search results and that users remain free to click directly through to publishers’ websites. The company added that it has no obligation to provide traffic on terms dictated by publishers.

“In PMC’s preferred world, Google Search must be frozen in time, requiring users to speculatively visit websites like PMC’s to access their desired information — if it is found there at all,” Google told the court.

PMC has argued that it depends heavily on Google Search referrals to generate traffic and advertising revenue that supports content production across more than 25 print and digital brands. The publisher contends that in a competitive market, Google would be required to compensate publishers for republishing their work or for using their content to train its AI systems.

Google countered that publishers can block their content from being indexed entirely if they choose and that Google makes no guarantees of referral traffic for indexed sites.

The case adds to a growing legal pile-up for Google. The company already faces two major antitrust lawsuits from the US government over its search and advertising businesses. A broader group of media publishers, including PMC, is also pursuing legal action over Google’s advertising practices.