Judge dismisses antitrust lawsuits over Google’s AI Overviews

A federal judge dismissed antitrust lawsuits filed by two publishers who claimed Google's AI search features diverted traffic away from their websites and hurt their revenue. The publishers had accused Google of abusing its monopoly power by requiring them to supply content for AI Overviews for free or risk being removed from search results. The judge ruled that publishers have no legal right to expect search traffic from Google and that antitrust law cannot address the economic impacts of new technology, which is a matter for lawmakers. The ruling comes as publishers continue to experience declining traffic from Google's AI-powered search changes, though Google has begun paying some publishers for their contributions to its AI products through a pilot program.