An urgent legal complaint has been submitted to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) by a coalition including Foxglove, the Independent Publishers Alliance, and Movement for an Open Web. The complaint, backed by antitrust law firm Preiskel and Co, demands the regulator impose immediate interim measures to stop Google from using publisher content in its Artificial Intelligence Overviews, alleging that the feature causes ´serious irreparable harm´ to the UK´s news industry by diverting traffic and undermining publisher revenues.
The complainants argue that Google’s dominant market position forces news publishers to accept the use of their content in Artificial Intelligence-generated answers, without the ability to opt out of these summaries while retaining their visibility in regular search results. Documents from a recent US antitrust trial suggested Google dismissed allowing publishers such a nuanced opt-out, as it would interfere with the platform’s monetization strategy. UK publishers now risk ´effective invisibility´ online should they refuse participation, according to the complaint, as opting out of both Artificial Intelligence Overviews and Search would decimate their discovery via the web.
The complaint calls for interim action, including allowing publishers to opt out of content being used in Artificial Intelligence Overviews without losing standard search indexing, and instituting fair compensation for content use. The backdrop includes staggering declines in clickthrough rates reported by publishers like Mail Online since the rollout of Artificial Intelligence Overviews—56.1% on desktop and 48.2% on mobile. Leaders like Foxglove´s Rosa Curling and Movement for an Open Web´s James Rosewell argue that action is essential before slow regulatory timelines inflict further damage on an already struggling news sector. Meanwhile, Google maintains it sends significant web traffic to publishers, asserts that Artificial Intelligence-generated search is driving increased usage, and says publishers retain control over their content, though opting out via current tools can negatively impact overall traffic. The CMA has indicated plans to grant itself greater powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, potentially introducing new publisher protections as early as October, but industry advocates say the crisis demands faster intervention.
