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Penske Media filed a lawsuit against Google on Friday in a Washington, D.C. federal court, accusing the tech company of using its articles from Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety without permission to generate AI summaries. The legal action, according to Reuters, is the first of its kind brought by a major U.S. media house targeting Google’s AI-generated results that now appear above regular search links. The family-run publisher, which is led by Jay Penske and claims 120 million monthly online visitors across its properties, argues that these AI summaries are pulling traffic away from its websites. The company says Google is republishing its journalism in these overviews without a license and without any form of compensation. Penske claims this is hurting both ad and subscription revenues at a time when search traffic is already falling. Penske links AI summaries to traffic loss and falling revenue The lawsuit says that around 20% of searches that used to send users to Penske’s sites now show AI Overviews instead. This change, according to the company, has led to affiliate revenue dropping by over one-third by the end of 2024. Jay said in a statement, “We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions.” Penske claims Google forces publishers to accept these terms if they want to be included in search results at all. Without agreeing to let their work be summarized by AI, the company says it would lose visibility. The lawsuit also brought up the infamous 2024 federal court ruling that said Google holds a near 90% share of the U.S. search market, saying it gives Google unfair power to control how digital content is accessed and distributed. In February, education platform Chegg also sued…

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Filed under: News - @ September 14, 2025 2:27 pm