EU Targets Google in New Antitrust Probe Over AI Content Use

• The EU launched an antitrust probe into Google (GOOG, GOOGL) for using web publishers’ and YouTube content to train AI models without adequate compensation or genuine opt-out options that preserve search visibility.
• The investigation targets whether Google imposes unfair terms that disadvantage rival AI developers and distort competition by leveraging its search dominance.
• It forms part of a wider EU crackdown on U.S. tech giants, following a nearly 3 billion euro Google ad-tech fine, a 120-million-euro penalty on X, and an ongoing Meta (META) probe over WhatsApp data access for third-party AI providers.

On Tuesday, the European Commission launched a formal antitrust investigation into Google (GOOG, GOOGL) concerning its practices of scraping and utilizing web publishers’ content, as well as material uploaded to YouTube, for training and powering its artificial intelligence systems, including AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search. The probe centers on whether these activities involve the imposition of unfair terms on publishers and creators, the absence of adequate compensation mechanisms, and the denial of meaningful opt-out rights that do not result in de facto exclusion from Google Search indexing and traffic. A particular focus is the potential creation of an unlevel playing field that privileges Google’s own AI development while disadvantaging third-party AI model developers who lack comparable access to the same vast datasets.

The Commission’s concern is that Google may be leveraging its dominant position in general search – where it commands over 90% market share in most European countries – to extract content under conditions that publishers cannot realistically refuse without suffering severe visibility losses. This echoes broader European regulatory worries that gatekeeper platforms can transform essential distribution channels into compulsory data-extraction pipelines, effectively turning the open web into a proprietary training resource for the gatekeeper’s next-generation products.

Google responded by characterizing the investigation as a risk to innovation in an increasingly competitive AI landscape, emphasizing its ongoing collaboration with European news publishers and creative sectors during the transition to AI-driven technologies. The company has previously structured a variety of licensing and compensation deals with publishers in several member states, although critics argue these arrangements remain voluntary in name only and fail to cover the full scope of content usage now under scrutiny.

This investigation arrives amid an intensified regulatory campaign by the European Union against U.S.-based technology giants. In September, Google received a nearly 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) fine for anticompetitive conduct in the advertising technology stack, a decision the company continues to contest on appeal. Days earlier, the Commission imposed a 120-million-euro ($140 million) penalty on X for violations involving advertising transparency and the misleading use of its verified-account blue checkmark. Separately, Meta (META) is now facing its own antitrust probe over interoperability rules that govern third-party AI providers’ access to WhatsApp user data.

Taken together, these actions reflect a coordinated European effort to ensure that the economic and societal benefits of generative AI do not accrue predominantly to a handful of dominant American platforms at the expense of local publishers, competing AI developers, and consumer choice. While the investigations remain in preliminary stages and no final infringement findings have been made, they underscore the growing friction between Brussels’ competition enforcement framework – bolstered by tools such as the Digital Markets Act – and the data-intensive business models that have propelled the current wave of artificial intelligence advancement.

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