Judge dismisses Penske's AI Overviews antitrust suit against Google

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed antitrust claims that Penske Media and Chegg brought against Google over AI Overviews, in a September 30 ruling. Mehta found no formal deal existed obligating Google to pay for publisher content: in plain terms, he said publishers had only an “expectation” of getting search traffic back, not a contract, so taking their content for free wasn’t a broken bargain. The ruling also rejected the publishers’ claim that AI Overviews is a separate product improperly tied to search, and dismissed a related unjust-enrichment claim once the federal antitrust claims fell. The dismissal is without prejudice, so Penske can amend and refile. Mehta wrote he is “not unsympathetic” to publishers’ situation but said fixing it is a matter for Congress, not antitrust law — a notable shift in tone from an August hearing where he called Google’s use of publisher content “seems really unfair,” per Search Engine Journal. Jason Kint, head of publisher trade group Digital Content Next, called the ruling’s reasoning “legal technicalities” that don’t change “the real-world problem,” per Press Gazette.