Judge dismisses Chegg and Penske antitrust lawsuits targeting Google AI search

A US federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits filed by two companies against Google over its AI search products. The companies claimed Google illegally scraped their content and used it in AI answers, which reduced traffic to their sites, but the judge ruled this conduct does not violate antitrust law because Google had no formal agreement with these sites to send them traffic. The judge acknowledged that Google's approach to AI search may be unfair to publishers and harmful to journalists and content creators, but stated that antitrust laws cannot address economic harm that results from innovation rather than illegal conduct. Publishers may have better prospects pursuing cases overseas, where regulators take a dimmer view of Big Tech's practices, though lawmakers in the US have been slow to create new legislation addressing AI-related issues.