Penske Media, the company behind Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety, has dragged Google to court over its AI Overviews feature. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC, accuses the tech giant of using journalism without consent to power AI-generated summaries.
Penske claims Google’s AI Overviews now appear in about 20% of searches linking to its sites. “Our affiliate revenue dropped by more than one-third by late 2024,” the company said.
The media group argues that Google forces publishers into a corner—either allow their content to be used in AI summaries or risk disappearing from search results.
“We have a responsibility to proactively fight for the future of digital media and preserve its integrity – all of which is threatened by Google’s current actions,” Penske Media stated.
Publishers Push Back Against Google’s Search Power
Google controls nearly 90% of the US search market. Penske says this dominance lets Google avoid paying licensing fees for republishing or training its AI systems with journalistic content.
The lawsuit follows a similar case by education firm Chegg, which sued Google in February over declining traffic caused by AI summaries.

Danielle Coffey of the News/Media Alliance said, “When you have the massive scale and market power that Google has, you are not obligated to abide by the same norms. That is the problem.”
Google responded, “With AI Overviews, people find Search more helpful and use it more, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered. We will defend against these meritless claims,” spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.
Earlier this month, Google won an antitrust case that allowed it to keep its Chrome browser, despite calls to break up its search monopoly.
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