The European Commission today announced that it intends to investigate possible anticompetitive conduct by Google in AI. This follows a complaint filed by the Movement for an Open Web, Foxglove and the Independent Publisher Alliance in July this year.
In response to the EC’s announcement, James Rosewell, co-founder of Movement for an Open Web, said:
“It’s fantastic news to see that the EC has taken up the complaint against Google’s AI Overviews submitted by The Movement for an Open Web, Foxglove and the Independent Publishers’ Alliance. Google’s AIOs are nothing more than double daylight robbery, stealing content from publishers to inform their models and then using these outputs to steal traffic from them. Smaller publishers are suffering badly and the Commission has recognised the need to act to preserve Europe’s content economy before its too late. This case isn’t about opposition to innovation, its about stopping a business model that’s built on theft and monopolistic dominance.
“What we need to see now is immediate action to stop the pain for publishers. We recognise that the investigation is going to take time to work through the evidence but in the meantime we need to see immediate interim measures giving publishers the ability to control their involvement in Google’s IP theft machine.”