TechAIPolicyJudge dismisses antitrust lawsuits over Google\u2019s AI OverviewsRolling Stone\u2019s parent company and Chegg claimed Google\u2019s AI search features drove away traffic from their sites.Rolling Stone\u2019s parent company and Chegg claimed Google\u2019s AI search features drove away traffic from their sites.by Emma RothOct 1, 2026, 5:12 PM UTCShareGiftImage: Cath Virginia \/ The VergeEmma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.A federal judge has dismissed a pair of antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Rolling Stone parent company Penske Media Corporation, which accused Google of driving away web traffic with its AI-powered search features, as reported earlier by Reuters. US District Judge Amit Mehta takes Google\u2019s side in a ruling on Wednesday, writing that PMC and Chegg\u2019s claims don\u2019t stand up to antitrust law.In lawsuits filed last year, Chegg and PMC accused Google of abusing its monopoly power by coercing publishers into supplying content for AI Overviews for free, or risk disappearing from search results. The publishers alleged Google\u2019s practices diverted traffic away from their sites, hurting their revenue.Judge Mehta, who made a landmark antitrust ruling against Google in 2024, disagrees with Chegg and PMC\u2019s claims. \u201cPlaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an \u2018expectation\u2019 that Google will send them search \u200btraffic if they make their content available for free,\u201d Mehta writes. \u201cBut an expectation is not an agreement.<\/p>\n
It is simply how a general search engine works.\u201dRelatedGoogle reportedly tests paying publishers for AI search resultsMehta adds that the court is not \u201cunsympathetic to the situation publishers now find themselves in,\u201d but writes that antitrust rules can\u2019t replace a legislative body\u2019s decision to address the economic impact of \u201cnew innovation.\u201dMeanwhile, publishers continue to see effects of Google\u2019s AI-powered search overhaul, with traffic to news outlets and small websites taking a steep dive. This week, The Information reported that Google is paying around 100 publishers for their contributions to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini as part of a pilot program.Disclosure: The Verge is part of Penske Media.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Emma RothAIAntitrustGoogleLawPolicyTechMost PopularApple\u2019s \u2018HomePad\u2019 will reportedly launch on October 13thThe People of Utah vs. Kevin O\u2019LearyAmazon is launching colorful new Kindles \u2014 and a case with physical page-turn buttonsThe AI Tamagotchis are comingGoogle announces Gemini 4 and says it\u2019s so capable that only \u2018trusted cyber defenders\u2019 can have it right nowAdvertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TechAIPolicyJudge dismisses antitrust lawsuits over Google\u2019s AI OverviewsRolling Stone\u2019s parent company and Chegg claimed Google\u2019s AI search features drove away traffic from their sites.Rolling Stone\u2019s parent company and Chegg claimed Google\u2019s AI search features drove\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}