The European Publishers Council has filed an antitrust complaint against Google, accusing it of abusing its dominant position by using publishers' content without fair compensation.

The European Publishers Council (EPC) has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, accusing Alphabet Inc. and Google of abusing their dominant position in online searches. The complaint targets the implementation of AI features in Google Search, claiming that they violate Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by distorting competition and exploiting publishers' content without fair compensation. Google is transforming search from a reference mechanism into a response engine, which reduces traffic to publishers' sites and affects advertising revenues. EPC emphasizes that Google uses high-quality content to train its AI without authorization and without fair remuneration, putting publishers in a difficult position. The Council calls on the European Commission to implement measures that restore competitive balance, including publishers' control over the use of their content and a fair licensing framework. This situation highlights the tension between innovation and the sustainability of the journalism ecosystem, underscoring that architectural decisions in AI are now regulatory decisions.