{"id":1236720513,"date":"2026-10-01T13:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T20:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/?p=1236720513"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:23:34","slug":"google-wins-dismissal-of-pmc-lawsuit-over-ai-search-snippets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/google-wins-dismissal-of-pmc-lawsuit-over-ai-search-snippets-1236720513\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Wins Dismissal of PMC Lawsuit Over AI Search Snippets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tGoogle has won dismissal of a lawsuit from Penske Media, parent of The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, Variety<\/em> and Rolling Stone<\/em>, accusing it of illegally using the publisher’s content to produce artificial intelligence-generated snippets of stories, which are displayed to users and undermines traffic to websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tU.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found on Wednesday that antitrust laws don’t account for AI overviews of content while nodding to “knock on consequences” to publishers whose “content Google takes and repurposes without compensation.” The issue, he concluded, is better-suited for lawmakers who must answer questions of economic dislocation caused by new technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tPenske Media had alleged Google leveraged its search monopoly to coerce publishers into giving up content in exchange for search referral traffic. Since the emergence of AI overviews and zero-click search results, online publishers have seen drops in users clicking through to their websites. Chartbeat reported a 40 percent year-over-year decline for Google search across its publisher network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn Wednesday’s ruling, the court rebuffed arguments that there was an implied deal between Google and publishers. Crawling publicly available websites, the court said, is simply how search engines operate. Accepting Penske Media’s theory that the publisher has a contract with Google would mean the search giant has agreements with billions of other websites, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t“Plaintiffs have pleaded only that they have an ‘expectation’ that Google will send them search traffic if they make their content available for free,” Mehta wrote. “But an expectation is not an agreement. It is simply how a general search engine works.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tSeparately, the court found that search results and AI overviews aren’t meaningfully different offerings since they share the same core purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tPenske Media had claimed that Google illegally offers AI overviews at the top of its general search engine results page, diverting traffic away from its websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tAt the core of the dismissal was the court’s conclusion that Penske Media, which declined to comment, can’t bring antitrust claims in the general search market since it operates downstream of Google. The loss of referral traffic and ad revenue, Mehta said, aren’t direct antitrust injuries caused by the search giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe allegations could be better-suited for an unjust enrichment claim, which the court didn’t decide since the federal claims were dismissed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tWednesday’s decision can be appealed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The court said the issue isn’t in the realm of antitrust laws and should be decided by lawmakers. Publishers have seen drops in search traffic because of AI overviews. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223480,"featured_media":1236720554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"override_post_title":"","override_post_excerpt":"","authors":[],"contributors":[],"styled_by":[],"_image_credit":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","pmc_selected_wwd_video_media":"","pmc_top_video_source":"","pmc_top_video_duration":"","wwd_top_video_source":"","wwd_top_video_duration":"","pmc_selected_featured_media":"","pmc_selected_video_media":"","pmc_selected_variety_video_media":"","variety_top_video_source":"","variety_top_video_duration":"","pmc_featured_media_has_alt_text":true,"_pmc_featured_animated_media_id":0,"_pmc_featured_video_override_data":"","_pmc_featured_video_override_url":"","_pmc_featured_video_response_data":"","pmc-gallery-linked-gallery":{},"pmc_list_item_description":"","primary_category":"","primary_vertical":"","_mt_pmc_exclude_from_seo":"","_pmc_opengraph_title":"","_pmc_opengraph_description":"","categories":64,"subcategories":65850,"thr-review-summary-credits":"","thr-full-credit":"","thr-review-mpaa-rating":"","thr-review-running-time":"","_synopsis":"","_air_date":"00-00-00","pmc-imdb-id":"","pmc-review-type":"","pmc-review-rating":"","pmc-review-rating-out-of":"","pmc-review-snippet":"","pmc-review-title":"","pmc-review-canonical-link":"","pmc-theatrical-release-date":0,"pmc-director":"","pmc-review-image_attachment_id":0,"thr_post_headlines":"The court said the issue isn't in the realm of antitrust laws and should be decided by lawmakers. 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