The European Commission has launched a new competition investigation into how Google uses web publishers’ content and YouTube videos to train AI models. The Commission is concerned that Google uses publishers’ online content without adequate compensation and without offering an option to refuse. Similar concerns apply to user-uploaded YouTube videos.
EU Competition Chief Teresa Ribera said Google may be abusing its dominant position in the search engine space to impose “unfair trading conditions” on publishers. Ribera stated that the company’s “AI Overviews” service, which includes AI-generated summaries, uses publisher content to its own advantage.
The Commission stressed that this case is a strong indication of its commitment to protecting online media and other content creators. The European Commission also launched an investigation last week into Meta’s plans to block competing AI systems within the WhatsApp ecosystem. As regulatory pressure on tech giants increases, Google faces the risk of fines of up to 10% of its global annual revenue in the event of a potential violation.Google’s AI Overviews feature, available in over 100 countries, provides users with AI-generated summaries of web pages, and the company began displaying ads in these areas last May.
