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Brussels has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s AI practices, targeting how the tech giant harvests publisher content.
The European Commission has delivered a blow to Google’s AI ambitions.
Brussels launched a formal antitrust investigation yesterday (Dec. 9) into Google’s AI practices, targeting how the tech giant harvests publisher content and YouTube videos without proper compensation. This marks the Commission’s second major Google probe in less than a month, signaling unprecedented regulatory pressure on Big Tech’s AI dominance.
Google now faces potential fines reaching 10% of its global annual revenue if found guilty. With Google’s parent company Alphabet reporting revenues exceeding $280 billion annually, penalties could reach tens of billions of dollars.
This investigation emerged from complaints filed five months ago by a powerful coalition including Movement for an Open Web, tech justice group Foxglove, and the UK’s Independent Publishers’ Alliance. James Rosewell from Movement for an Open Web, speaking to Press Gazette, didn’t hold back, branding Google’s AI Overviews as “nothing more than double daylight robbery, stealing content from publishers to inform their models and then using these outputs to steal traffic from them.”.
Publishers find themselves trapped in a catch-22. They can’t block Google’s AI bots without effectively vanishing from search results altogether. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has already responded by designating Google as having “strategic market status” for its AI-powered search products, opening the door for new regulations.
Google’s AI Overviews—which began incorporating advertisements back in May—directly compete with publishers by providing AI-generated summaries that eliminate the need for users to click through to original sources. Publishers from Forbes to Future are already implementing “Google Zero” strategies to reduce their dependence on the search giant.
The probe extends far beyond web publishers into YouTube’s massive creator ecosystem, revealing a shocking power imbalance. EU regulators discovered that content creators uploading to YouTube must grant Google permission to use their videos for AI training as a mandatory condition—with zero compensation and absolutely no opt-out option.
Rival AI developers face a completely different reality—they’re systematically locked out from accessing YouTube content for their own models. This creates what regulators are calling an unfair competitive advantage—Google gets exclusive access to YouTube’s vast content library while competitors are systematically excluded.
The Commission is examining whether these practices violate EU competition rules that prohibit abuse of dominant market position. This investigation represents a critical test case for how AI companies can access and monetize user-generated content in the post-ChatGPT era.
This investigation signals a potential watershed moment in the AI revolution. Google operates under heightened scrutiny due to the Digital Markets Act, which could fundamentally reshape how AI companies access and utilize online content. Since September, the company has already been hit with nearly €3 billion in fresh EU fines over advertising practices, adding to previous penalties totaling over €8 billion for various antitrust violations across the past decade.
Publishers are already voting with their feet—major outlets are actively developing contingency plans to survive in a post-Google world, while regulatory bodies worldwide watch Brussels’ investigation as a potential blueprint for their own actions. The European Commission originally began scrutinizing Google’s AI Overviews back in April after the feature launched in Europe, raising concerns about media fairness and competition.
The outcome could determine whether AI development continues under the current “scrape first, ask questions later” model, or whether content creators finally gain meaningful control over how their work powers AI. This isn’t just about Google—it’s about establishing the fundamental rules for an entire industry that’s reshaping how information flows through society.
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