The European Commission began an antitrust probe targeting Google’s AI content usage. Traffic losses hit affiliates after Google implemented these AI features. The executive branch examines whether Google violated competition rules through content usage. Web publishers’ material and YouTube uploads power Google’s AI purposes. Google scrapes web content to generate query summaries atop search pages. Publishers, including gambling affiliates, experienced major traffic drops from this practice.

Teresa Ribera serves as European Commission Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. She stated that a free democratic society needs diverse media and open information. Creative landscape vitality remains essential for European values fundamentally. AI delivers innovation and benefits across European businesses and populations. Progress cannot sacrifice societal principles that define European identity.

EU Examines Google’s Competition Practices

Investigators will check if Google distorts competition through unfair creator terms. The probe examines whether Google gives itself privileged content access. Other AI businesses might face disadvantages compared to Google’s position. Ribera explained that their investigation focuses on Google’s potential unfair publisher terms. Content creators might suffer while rival AI developers face competitive disadvantages. These practices could violate EU competition rules if proven true.

Commission concerns centre on Google using AI overviews without compensating creators. Publishers lack options to refuse their content’s AI usage. The investigation will measure how AI overviews depend on uncompensated publisher content. AI mode generation also uses publisher material without proper payment arrangements. Publishers rely on Google search traffic for their business survival. Most cannot risk losing Google access by refusing participation. This dependency creates potential abuse of Google’s dominant market position.

Affiliates might benefit from this investigation after suffering traffic declines. AI models caused damage alongside other internet publishers across sectors. Google updates since 2024 have already penalised various affiliate practices significantly. Some affiliates experienced painful ranking drops from these algorithm changes.