Highlights
- Google files motion to dismiss Penske Media Corp lawsuit.
- Penske contends Google negatively impacts website traffic with AI-generated summaries.
- Google asserts no obligation exists to index content according to publishers’ specifications.
Google has submitted a request to a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought forth by Penske Media Corp, the parent company of prominent publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety.
The lawsuit alleges that the tech behemoth is compromising the traffic integrity of media outlets by incorporating AI-generated summaries into search results.
In a filing on Monday at the federal district court in Washington, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, termed Penske’s lawsuit as “legally flawed in every conceivable manner.”
Penske initiated the lawsuit last year, claiming that Google contravened antitrust legislation by compelling publishers to accept AI summaries of their content to retain visibility within Google’s search indexing.
Chegg, an online educational platform, is concurrently pursuing a similar lawsuit against Google regarding its AI overviews.
Google contended that its AI-generated summaries enhance user experience while still allowing users to navigate directly to the publishers’ original content via search results.
Penske Media Corp emphasized its heavy reliance on Google search referrals, which it claims are vital for traffic and revenue generation, essential for sustaining its diverse portfolio of over 25 print and digital brands.
Furthermore, the publisher opined that in a competitive ecosystem, Google should compensate publishers for the replication of their work or for utilizing their content to train its AI systems.
Conversely, Google maintained that it bears no obligation to index publishers’ content according to their preferred criteria. The filing mentioned that publishers have the option to entirely block indexing if they so choose, and Google does not guarantee referral traffic to indexed sites.
In the court documents, Google articulated that, “In PMC’s envisioned scenario, Google Search would be immobilized, constraining users to visit websites like PMC’s on a speculative basis to find the information they seek—if it is even accessible at all.”
Moreover, Google is currently facing two antitrust lawsuits launched by the U.S. government focusing on the company’s search and advertising strategies. Media publishers, including Penske, are also pursuing legal action regarding Google’s advertising practices.
The case is formally cited as Penske Media Corp et al v. Google and Alphabet, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, under case number 1:25-cv-03192-APM.
Source link: Brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com.
